Compilation
Poa biformis

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Name

Identification
Poa biformis Kunth [family GRAMINEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Not on sheet.,
Related name
  • Eragrostis gangetica
  • Eragrostis atrovirens
  • Poa biformis

Flora

Entry for ERAGROSTIS atrovirens (Desf.) Steud. [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, Part (Part 2), page 177, (1974) Author: W. D. CLAYTON, S. M. PHILLIPS AND S. A. RENVOIZE
Names
ERAGROSTIS atrovirens (Desf.) Steud. [family POACEAE], ,Nom. Bot., ed. 2,1: 562 (1840); Troupin, Fl. Garamba 1: 36 (1956); F.P.S. 3: 456 (1956); R.K.G.: 21 (1958); Ann. list Nyasaland grasses: 38 (1958); I.G.U.: 32 (1960); G.T.: 32 (1965); Clayton in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 3: 390 (1972). Type: Algeria, La Calle, Desfontaines (FI, holo.)
Poa atrovirens Desf. [family POACEAE], Fl. Atlant. 1: 73 (1798)
Poa biformis Kunth [family POACEAE], Rév. Gram. 2: 471, fig. 149 (1831). Type: Senegal, Richard Tol, Lelièvre (whereabouts uncertain)
Eragrostis biformis (Kunth) Benth. [family POACEAE], Fl. Nigrit.: 568 (1849)
Eragrostis bromoides Jedw. [family POACEAE], in Bot. Archiv. 5: 190 (1924), non Steud. (1854), nom. illegit. Type: Central African Republic, Bailli R., Chevalier 8588 (K, iso.!)
Eragrostis multiflora (Kunth) A. Chev. var. biformis [family POACEAE], in Rev. Bot. Appliq. 15: 1042 (1935)
Eragrostis chariis [family POACEAE], [sensu Ann. list grasses Ug.: 18 (1947), non (Schult.) Hitchcock]
Eragrostis sudanica A. Chev. [family POACEAE], in Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, sér. 2, 20: 471 (1948). Type: Mali, Bamako, Chevalier 233 (P, holo.!)
Information
Tufted perennial without rhizome; culms 30–100 cm. high. Leaf-blades flat or rolled, mostly 15–30 cm. long and 2–4 mm. wide. Panicle ovate or oblong, 4–40 cm. long, the spikelets loosely contracted about the obliquely ascending primary branches. Spikelets 6–50-flowered, narrowly oblong, 3–20 mm. long, 1.5–2.5 mm. wide, the opposite rows of florets not overlapping, leaving the rhachilla partly visible, typically grey-green but varying from yellowish to dark green and often tinged with purple, breaking up from the base, the rhachilla persistent; glumes subequal, ovate-elliptic, 0.8–1.7 mm. long, acute; lemmas broadly ovate and acute to subacute when flattened, 1.4–2 mm. long, minutely asperulous; palea falling soon after the lemma, the keels scaberulous; anthers 3,0.5–1 mm. long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.7 mm. long.
Range
DISTR. K6; T3, 4, 6–8 N. Africa to Zambia and Angola; Mauritania to the Philippines
Altitude range
150–2100 m.
Distribution
KENYA Masai District Ngong Hills, 17 June 1951, Bogdan 3053 !TANZANIA Uzaramo District Dar es Salaam, 20 July 1971, Wing field 1698 !TANZANIA Songea District between Peramiho and R. Wuwawesi, 21 Feb. 1956, Milne-Redhead & Taylor 8857 !
Notes
E. atrovirens belongs to a closely related group of intergrading species, including 32, E. inamoena and 36, E. chalarothyrsos. Its annual counterpart is 30, E. gangetica, whose name has often been misapplied to the perennial. It is also related to the South American species E. expansa Link and E. bahiensis Schult., but these have only 2 stamens. E. chariis (Schult.) Hitchcock, a name sometimes misapplied to E. atrovirens, is a synonym of E. nutans (Retz.) Steud., a different Indian species.

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