Compilation
Gymnothrix schimperi

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Name

Identification
Pennisetum schimperi A.Rich. [family POACEAE ] Pennisetum spacelatum (Nees) Th. Dur & Schinz. [family POACEAE ] (stored under name); Gymnothrix schimperi Hochst. [family POACEAE ]
Related name
  • Pennisetum arvense
  • Gymnothrix schimperi
  • Pennisetum schimperi
  • Pennisetum ramosum
  • Pennisetum spacelatum

Flora

Entry for PENNISETUM Schimperi A. Rich. [family POACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical Africa, Vol 9, page 1, (1917) Author: (By O. STAPF.)
Names
PENNISETUM Schimperi A. Rich. [family POACEAE], Tent. Fl. Abyss. ii. 381 (1851). —Steud. Syn. Pl. Glum. i. 104; Schweinf. Beitr. Fl. Æthiop. 301; Engl. Hochgebirgsfl. Trop. Afr. 123 (in part); Durand & Schinz, Consp. Fl. Afr. v. 783; Leeke in Zeitschr. Naturwiss. lxxix. 38; Chiov. in Ann. Istit. Bot. Roma, viii. 40, 317.
PENNISETUM Merkeri Leeke [family POACEAE], in Zeitschr. Naturwiss. lxxix. 27 (1907); Pilger in Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin, x. 272; A. Peter in Fedde, Repert. Beih. xl. 247.
Gymnothrix Schimperi Hochst. [family ], in Flora, xxiv. i. Intell. 19 (1841), name only.
Information
A densely tufted perennial; innovations intravaginal. Culms erect, 1 1/2–4 ft. high, slender to moderately stout, terete or slightly compressed, simple, 2–3-noded, loosely to densely pilose or villous below the inflorescence and sometimes sparsely hairy below the nodes, otherwise glabrous and smooth. Leaf-sheaths usually overlapping, striate, loosely hairy upwards mostly from minute tubercles, densely ciliate on the margins, or glabrescent except for the densely woolly mouth, or quite glabrous; ligule reduced to a densely ciliate rim; blade linear from a narrow base, tapering to a hard obtuse or acute tip, up to 14 in. long, involute or convolute, up to 2 lin. wide when opened out, rigid, sparsely hairy from minute tubercles or glabrous, prominently nerved, smooth. False spike cylindric, very dense, erect, straight or flexuous, 1 3/4–3 1/2 in. long, 3 1/2–4 lin. wide (exclusive of the bristles), usually pale yellow or pale green; rhachis minutely hispidulous or scaberulous, densely beset with the thickened minute hispidulous-tipped stumps of the deciduous involucres; involucres sessile, shortly bearded at the base, at length horizontally spreading; bristles 10–18 to each involucre, very slender, scaberulous, of unequal length, free to the base, glabrous or the inner more or less loosely ciliate around the spikelet with fine white hairs, pallid, one or two stouter than the rest and up to 6 lin. long, the remainder varying in length and up to 4 1/2 lin. long. Spikelets solitary, sessile within the involucre, lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, acute or acuminate and mucronate, 1 3/4–2 1/2 lin. long, glabrous. Lower glume lanceolate to broadly elliptic, more or less obtuse or acute, 1/4– 3/4 lin. long, hyaline, nerveless or 1-nerved; upper broadly ovate to elliptic, acute or abruptly acuminate and mucronulate, 3/4–1 1/2 (rarely 2) lin. long, thinly membranous, 1–3-nerved. Lower floret barren and reduced to the valve: valve when flattened lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, finely acute or acuminate, as long as the spikelet, membranous, 3–5-nerved, minutely scaberulous towards the apex; valvule suppressed. Upper floret hermaphrodite, lanceolate, finely acute and mucronate: valve when flattened elliptic or ovate-elliptic, acute or acuminate, mucronate with the mucro scaberulous, as long as the spikelet or usually slightly shorter, firmly membranous, 5-nerved; valvule lanceolate, acute, slightly shorter than the valve. Lodicules 1/6 lin. long. Anthers dark, 1–1 1/4 lin. long, with glabrous tips. Styles free to the base; stigmas dark purple.
Distribution
Tanganyika Mozamb. Dist. between Umbugwe and Iraku, Merker, 207! near Iringa, Zimmermann in Amani Inst. Herb. 2540!Nyasaland Mozamb. Dist. Mt. Mlanje, Adamson, 416!Eritrea Nile Land Amasen; Asmara, Tellini, 389, Baldrati, D. 96, Pappi, 4381, 7600 ft., Pappi, 2128; along the Mai Bela near Asmara, Pappi, 5067; R. Adikubé near Addi Nefas, Pappi, 4165; Addi Baro, along the River Mareb, Pappi, 2382; Scimezana; Guna-Guna, 7300 ft., Pappi, 734.Abyssinia Nile Land Tigre; near Adowa, Schimper, 287! Begemeder; near Gerra, in boggy meadows, 6200 ft., Schimper, 1046! Lake Harimiya, Drake-Brockman, 51! 52! without precise locality, Quartin-Dillon & Petit, 180! South Abyssinia: Stordy !Kenya Nile Land Eldoret, in grassland, Hitchcock, 25003! Solai, on grey sandy loam, 6000 ft., McDonald, 993! Kinangop, on water-logged light grey loam overlying laterite gravel, 8000 ft., Edwards, 1455! 7000 ft., Napier, 1562! Leikipia Plateau and Aberdare Range, Routledge ! Njoro, Dowson, 220! Mau Escarpment, Forestry Department, Nairobi, 152! Nakuru, 6300 ft., Taylor, 1305! Escarpment, Linton, 178! Escarpment near Nairobi, dominant in places, on red loam, 7200 ft., Edwards, 1481! Nairobi to Nanyuki, in dry grassland, Hitchcock, 24752! Kabete, in grass pasture, 6000 ft., Edwards, 1650! Menengai, R. Mereroni, 6300 ft., Taylor ! Mt. Kenya, open spaces in Juniperus procera and Olive forest, 9000 ft., Lyne Watt, 1124! in meadows, 7600 ft., Fries, 360! without precise locality, Powell, 12! 17! Praschkauer & Co. !
Notes
Vern. Name:— Gutu (Kikuyu). Very closely allied to the South African Pennisetum sphacelatum, Durand and Schinz, which has, however, finer leaves with a different structure. The majority of the Abyssinian specimens have glabrous bristles and represent typical Pennisetum Schimperi; those from Kenya Colony have the inner bristles more or less loosely ciliate below the middle and represent the form described as P. Merkeri by Leeke. Adamson's plant from Mt. Mlanje, Nyasaland, has purple panicles and glabrous bristles; it is doubtfully referred to this species.

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