Compilation
Alloteropsis gwebiensis

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Name

Identification
Alloteropsis semialata (R.Br.) Hitchc. [family POACEAE ] (stored under name); Isotype of Alloteropsis gwebiensis Stent & Rattray [family POACEAE ] Alloteropsis homblei Robyns [family POACEAE ]
Related name
  • Alloteropsis homblei
  • Alloteropsis semialata
  • Alloteropsis gwebiensis

Flora

Entry for ALLOTEROPSIS semialata (R. Br.) Hitchc. [family POACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 451, (1982) Author: W. D. CLAYTON and S.A. RENVOIZE
Names
ALLOTEROPSIS semialata (R. Br.) Hitchc. [family POACEAE], in Contr. U.S. Nat. Herb. 12: 210 (1909); F.T.A. 9: 483 (1919); Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 2: 57 (1934); Ann. list grasses Ug.: 2 (1947); F.P.S. 3: 387 (1956); R.K.G.: 47 (1958); Ann. list Nyasaland grasses: 28 (1958); I.G.U.: 14 (1960); G.T.: 72 (1965); Clayton in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 3: 448 (1972). Type: Australia, Carpentaria, Brown 6101 (K, iso.!)
Panicum semialatum R. Br. [family POACEAE], Prodr.: 192 (1810)
Urochloa semialata (R. Br.) Kunth [family POACEAE], Rév. Gram. 1:31 (1829)
Oplismenus semialatus (R. Br.) Desv. [family POACEAE], Opusc: 81 (1831)
Coridochloa semialata (R. Br.) Nees [family POACEAE], in Edinb. New Phil. Journ. 15: 381 (1833)
Bluffia eckloniana Nees [family POACEAE], in Lehm., Ind. Sem. Hort. Hamb. 1834: 8 (1834) & Fl. Afr. Austr.: 61 (1841). Types: South Africa, Katberg, Drège (K, S, isosyn.!) & Durban [Port Natal], Drège (S, isosyn.!)
Panicum semialatum (Nees) Th. Dur. & Schinz var. ecklonianum [family POACEAE], Consp. Fl. Afr. 5: 764 (1894)
Axonopus semialatus (R. Br.) Hook. f. [family POACEAE], Fl. Brit. Ind. 7: 64 (1896)
Axonopus semialatus Stapf var. ecklonii [family POACEAE], in Fl. Cap. 7: 418 (1899), nom. superfl. Based on Bluffia eckloniana Nees
Axonopus ecklonianus (Nees) Chiov. [family POACEAE], in Ann. Bot. Roma 13: 47 (1914)
Pterochlaena catangensis Chiov. [family POACEAE], in Ann. Bot. Roma 13: 47 (1914). Type: Zaire, Kapiri, Bovone 58 (whereabouts uncertain, not TO)
Alloteropsis eckloniana (Nees) Hitchc. [family POACEAE], in Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 29: 128 (1916)
Paspalum semialatum (R. Br.) Eyles [family POACEAE], in Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Africa 5: 299 (1916)
Paspalum semialatum (Stapf) Eyles var. ecklonii [family POACEAE], in Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. 5: 299 (1916), nom. superfl.
Alloteropsis semialata (Stapf) Stapf var. ecklonii [family POACEAE], in .T.A. 9: 485 (1919); Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 2: 58 (1934); Ann. list Nyasaland grasses: 28 (1958), nom. superfl.
Axonopus semialatus (Nees) Peter var. ecklonianus [family POACEAE], F.D.O.-A. 1: 165 (1929)
Alloteropsis homblei Robyns [family POACEAE], in B.J.B.B. 9: 172 (1932) & Fl. Agrost. Congo Belge 2: 58 (1934); G.T.: 71 (1965). Type: Zaire, Lubumbashi [Elisabethville], Homblé 63 (K, iso.!)
Alloteropsis gwebiensis Stent & Rattray [family POACEAE], in Proc. Trans. Rhod. 5ci. Ass. 32: 21 (1933). Type: Zimbabwe, Gwebi, Rattray 428 (K, iso.!)
Alloteropsis semialata (Nees) C.E. Hubbard var. eckloniana [family POACEAE], in Bor, Grasses Burma, Ceylon, India, Pakistan: 277 (1960); G.T.: 72 (1965)
Information
Tufted perennial, the basal sheaths silky pubescent to tomentose and often bulbously thickened; culms 20–150 cm. high. Leaf-blades linear to convolute, 10–50 cm. long, 1–10 mm. wide. Inflorescence of 2–4(–8) racemes, digitate; racemes 2–22 cm. long, usually with spikelets all along but sometimes bare at the base. Spikelets narrowly ovate, 4–7.5 mm. long; straw-coloured to dark purple or sometimes with dark transverse bars; lower glume 1/2–3/4 as long as the spikelet; upper glume acuminate, membranous, appressed ciliate on the margins, occasionally also with membranous wings; upper lemma with an awn 1.5–3 mm. long, the palea sparsely pubescent with linear or clavellate hairs, rarely glabrous.
Range
DISTR. U1, 3, 4; K3, 5; T1, 3, 4, 6–8 Old World tropics
Altitude range
300–2600 m.
Distribution
KENYA Trans-Nzoia District Kitale, May 1933, Maher 2500! & 7 May 1953, Bogdan 3722!KENYA N. Kavirondo District Kakamega Forest, W. of Forest Station, 11 Apr. 1973, Hansen 915!TANZANIA Ufipa District Chapota, 3 Dec. 1949, Bullock 1980! & Sumbawanga-Mbala [Abercorn] road near border, 20 Nov. 1958, Vesey-FitzGerald 1990!TANZANIA Iringa District Sao Hill, Nov. 1962, Procter 2165!UGANDA Karamoja District Mt. Kadam, 9 Jan. 1937, A.S. Thomas 2236! & Mt. Zulia, Apr. 1960, J. Wilson 907!UGANDA Teso District Alekilek [Alecelec], 9 Apr. 1956, Harker 341!
Notes
A polymorphic species showing the same wide range of variation in Africa and in Australia. The most distinctive segregate (var. eckloniana) has short dense dark coloured racemes, but it merges completely with the rest of the species and seems of limited taxonomic significance.An unusual degree of variation is found in the leaf anatomy, some plants having the Kranz type typical of panicoid grasses, but others having the non-Kranz type usually associated with temperate genera (Ellis in Bothalia 11: 273–275 (1974) & in S. Afr. J. Sci. 70: 169–173 (1974)).

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