Compilation
Tricholaena leucantha

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Name

Identification
Tricholaena leucantha Hochst. [family POACEAE ] Melinis somalensis Mez [family POACEAE ] Tricholaena teneriffae (L.f.) Link [family POACEAE ] (stored under name);
Related name
  • Tricholaena leucantha
  • Panicum leucanthum
  • Tricholaena teneriffae
  • Melinis somalensis
  • Monachyron unrecorded

Flora

Entry for TRICHOLAENA teneriffae (L.f.) Link [family POACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Somalia
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora Somalia, Vol 4, (1995) Author: by T. A. Cope [updated by M. Thulin 2008]
Names
TRICHOLAENA teneriffae (L.f.) Link [family POACEAE], (1829). Fig. 137.
Melinis leucantha (A. Rich.) Chiov. [family POACEAE], (1907);
TRICHOLAENA leucantha (A. Rich.) Stapf & C.E. Hubb. [family POACEAE], (1930). [type as above]
Melinis somalensis Mez [family POACEAE], (1921);. types: N2, “Las Khoreh”, Hildebrandt 1479 (B K W isosyn.) and others.
TRICHOLAENA gillettii C.E. Hubb. [family POACEAE], (1941);. type: N1, “Duwi”, Gillett 4395 (K holo.).
TRICHOLAENA setacea C.E. Hubb. [family POACEAE], (1941);. type: N1, “Burmado”, Gillett 4539 (K holo.).
Information
Perennial, forming tussocks from a woody rootstock, up to 60 cm high, ascending, the stems wiry with narrow leaves or herbaceous and leafy; leaves flat or inrolled, glabrous or thinly pubescent. Panicle usually narrowly oblong, 3–15 cm long, fairly dense, fully exserted. Spikelets 2.5–3.5 mm long; lower glume a minute truncate scale (rarely up to 0.5 mm); upper glume ovate, tuberculate-pilose with white hairs extending 0.5–4 mm beyond the tip, but often glabrous in the upper 1/4, acute and usually mucronate.
Range
N1–3; C2 East tropical Africa northwards to the Mediterranean region, thence westwards to Macaronesia and eastwards to India.
Altitude range
400–1600 m.
Distribution
SOMALIA Hemming 2305; Glover & Gilliland 1066; Thulin & Warfa 5981; Bally 3758.
Notes
Agar, dahlan fordade, oro jer yer, ramed guriyeh, tongari (Som.). A variable species with several ill-defined regional facies. One of these, referred to as subsp. eichingeri (Mez) Zizka (loc. cit.), is said to occur in Somalia alongside subsp. teneriffae; it is rather hard to say how the two differ except that in subsp. eichingeri the spikelet hairs are said to be shorter and the stems leafier. Only one specimen cited by Zizka (Collenette 119) has been seen, and the present author doubts the value of attempting to distinguish the taxa.

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