Compilation
Melinis tenuinervis

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Name

Identification
Melinis tenuinervis Not on sheet. [family GRAMINEAE ] Verified by Not on sheet., Melinis minutiflora Beauv. [family GRAMINEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Not on sheet.,
Related name
  • Melinis maitlandii
  • Melinis eylesii
  • Melinis ambigua
  • Melinis intermedia
  • Melinis minutiflora
  • Melinis tenuinervis

Flora

Entry for MELINIS tenuissima Stapf [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
MELINIS tenuissima Stapf [family POACEAE], in Hook. Ic. Pl. xxvii. t. 2660.
MELINIS tenuissima Stapf var. abyssinica [family POACEAE], l.c.
MELINIS gracilis Pilger [family POACEAE], in Schlechter, Westafr. Kautschuk-Exped. 268 (name only).
MELINIS tenuinervis Stent [family POACEAE], in Bothalia i. 257 (in part); not of Stapf.
MELINIS minutiflora Rendle var. effusa [family POACEAE], in Cat. Welw. Afr. Pl. ii. 200 (in part).
Information
Perennial, 1–4 ft. high. Culms erect or ascending from a short rhizome, with long erect or spreading branches from the lower nodes, lax, slender, wiry, shining, glabrous, many-noded, sometimes glaucous below the nodes, internodes exserted from the sheaths. Leaf-sheaths close, terete, striate, purplish, sparsely or densely pilose at the nodes, rarely all over, hairs often from minute tubercles; ligule reduced to a rim of short white hairs; blade spreading, linear-lanceolate from a rounded base, long and finely acute, 1 1/2–4 in. long, 1–4 lin. wide, flat, flaccid to rigid, finely nerved, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs on the margins, rarely densely pubescent to pilose, green above, sometimes glaucous beneath, smooth except for the rough margins. Panicle narrowly oblong to ovate or pyramidal, very lax and effuse, erect, 3–7 in. long, 1 1/2–4 in. wide; rhachis slender, smooth; branches 2–4-nate, finely filiform, pilose or glabrous at the nodes; branchlets and pedicels often divaricately spreading, very finely capillary, flexuous, purplish, smooth, the ultimate pedicels up to 5 lin. long, all with silvery shining hairs 1–2 lin. long from below their slightly thickened tips. Spikelets pale green, greyish-green or purple, ovate to ovate-oblong, 2/3– 4/5 lin. long. Lower glume reduced to a microscopic hyaline annular rim; upper broadly oblong when flattened, as long as the spikelet, truncate or emarginate, rarely mucronate, minutely puberulous and sparsely pilose in the upper part, finely 5-nerved, delicately membranous. Lower floret barren: valve oblong when flattened, equalling the upper glume and similar in hairiness and texture, finely 3–5-nerved, shortly and obtusely 2-lobed, with a fine flexuous awn 2–4 lin. long from the sinus, or sometimes mucronate or muticous; valvule 0. Upper floret hermaphrodite: valve elliptic-oblong, obtuse or minutely 2-fid, about 1/2 lin. long, very delicate, obscurely 3–1-nerved; valvule much wider, truncate, about 3/4 lin. long; anthers 1/2– 3/4 lin. long. Grain oblong, pale brown, 1/2 lin. long.
Distribution
Congo Lower Guinea Nkusu, 3620 ft., Dawe, 132! Sumba, Peco, Gossweiler, 9154!Angola Lower Guinea Cuanza Norte; grasslands at Cassualala, Gossweiler, 8303! near the river Lukala, Cassualala, 160 ft., Gossweiler, 8930! Cazengo; Casuta, in herb- and grass-grown thickets, Gossweiler, 5919! between Camondai and the river Mumbeje, in herb-grown open thickets, Gossweiler, 5931! without precise locality, Welwitsch, 2973!Tanganyika Mozamb. Dist. Iringa Province; Mbozi region of Mbeya district, Jacobsen, 21! Kyimbila, Mbuka, 5330 ft., Stolz, 1268!Nyasaland Mozamb. Dist. Namasi, Cameron, 33!Southern Rhodesia Mozamb. Dist. Mazoe, 4000 ft., Eyles, 1639! 4400 ft., Eyles, 2362! Salisbury, Walters, 3011! forest margin, 3800 ft., Eyles, 3401! 4800 ft., Eyles, 2229! 5000 ft., Eyles, 3018! in shade of open forest, 4900 ft., Eyles, 3024! Marandellas, between rocks on kopje, mixed with coarse grasses, 5300 ft., Eyles, 3879! on stream banks, Eyles, 3853! Umtali, Sawer, 16!Abyssinia Nile Land Begemeder, Efak, 6000 ft., Schimper, 1410!Uganda Nile Land Jumbwa, hilly grasslands, 4000 ft., Dummer, 3110! Budama; Samia, 4000 ft., Snowden, 1156! Tororo, 3700–4000 ft., Maitland, 1178!Kenya Nile Land South Kavirondo, Gem, 4200 ft., Spranger, 60!Congo South Central Katanga; Elizabethville, Rogers, 10901!Nigeria Upper Guinea between Ibadan and Abeokuta, Schlechter, 12338! Ibadan, recently burned ground, Deighton, 546!Cameroons Upper Guinea Yaunde Station, Mt. Ungomessam, 3000 ft., Zenker & Staudt, 564!
Distribution (external)
the Transvaal (Tzaneen, Pietersburg District, Mogg, 10454!)
Notes
Spikelets with awnless lower valves occur in several of Eyles' gatherings (marked with an) from Rhodesia; these may be referred to as forma mutica. The character however is not constant, and awned and awnless spikelets frequently occur in the same panicle (e.g. in Eyles, No. 3018).Vern. Name. Ayundo (Kenya Colony, teste Spranger).

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