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ERAGROSTIS ciliaris (L.) R. Br. [family POACEAE]

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

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 ciliaris (L.) R. Br. [family POACEAE], in Tuckey, Narr. Exp. Congo, App.: 478 (1818); Ann. list grasses Ug.: 18 (1947); F.P.N.A. 3: 160 (1955); F.P.S. 3: 450 (1956); R.K.G.: 17 (1958); Ann. list Nyasaland grasses: 39 (1958); I.G.U.: 29 (1960); G.T.: 36 (1965); Clayton in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 3: 386 (1972). Type: Jamaica (LINN, holo.!) Poa ciliaris L. [family POACEAE], Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 2: 875 (1759) Megastachya ciliaris (L.) P. Beauv. [family POACEAE], Ess. Agrost.: 74, 167 (1812) Cynodon ciliaris (L.) Rasp [family POACEAE], in Ann. Sci. Nat. 5: 302 (1825) Eragrostis pulchella Parl. [family POACEAE], in Atti Riun. Sci. Ital. 8: 586 (1847). Type: Cape Verde Is., Hooker 81 (K, iso.!) Eragrostis ciliaris Boiss. var. brachystachya [family POACEAE], Fl. Orient. 5: 582 (1884); F.P.S. 3: 450 (1956). Types: Arabia, Schweinfurth 1091 & Baluchistan, Stocks (both G, syn.!) Eragrostis ciliaris Hack. var. latifolia [family POACEAE], in Denks. Kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Naturw. K1. 78: 403 (1905). Type: Mozambique, Tete, Boroma [Boruma], Menyhart 1125 (Z, iso.!)
Information
Tufted annual; culms 5–60 cm. high, erect. Leaf-blades flat, up to 12 cm. long and 5 mm. wide. Panicle spike-like, but often ± lobed or interrupted, 1–20 cm. long, woolly, the spikelets densely clustered. Spikelets 6–12-flowered, ovate, 2–4.5 mm. long, fluffy, often purplish, breaking up from the apex, the rhachilla fragile; glumes lanceolate, subequal, 0.7–1.2 mm. long, acute; lemmas oblong-elliptic, 0.9–1.5 mm. long, the keels (at least in the upper lemmas) bearing a few short stiff hairs, otherwise smooth, broadly obtuse, ± obscurely mucronate; palea-keels tuberculate-ciliate, the hairs 0.6–0.7 mm. long, exceeding the width of the adjacent floret; anthers 2, 0.2 mm. long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.3–0.5 mm. long. Fig. 60/2, p. 190.
Range
DISTR. U1–4; K1, 2, 4, 5, 7; T1–4, 6–8; Z; P tropical and South Africa, extending through Arabia and the Mascarene Is. to India; tropical America
Altitude range
sea-level to 1400 m., or sometimes more
Distribution
KENYA Northern Frontier Province Dandu, 16 May 1952, Gillett 13213!KENYA Teita District 65 km. on Voi-Nairobi road, 14 Jan. 1962, Greenway 10470 !KENYA Kilifi District Malindi, 18 Aug. 1949, Bogdan 2618 !TANZANIA Tanga District Kihuhwi R., 19 Oct. 1932, Greenway 3249 !TANZANIA Mpanda/Ufipa District Rukwa, Rungwa R., 21 Oct. 1963, Vesey-FitzGerald 4200!TANZANIA Tunduru District just E. of Songea District boundary, 5 June 1956, Milne-Redhead & Taylor 10618 !TANZANIA Zanzibar I., Bweleo, 28 Jan. 1929, Greenway 1219 !TANZANIA Pemba I., Weti, Apr. 1929, Waterland 3UGANDA Teso District Katakwi, 16 Feb. 1956, Harker 240!UGANDA Mbale District Budama-Bunguli, 20 June 1927, Snowden 1121! & Tororo, 5 May 1941, A. S. Thomas 3851!
Notes
The woolly spike is usually distinctive, but in some specimens the panicle shape may approach extreme forms of E. tenella or E. arenicola; the cilia on the lemma-keel, though rather obscure, are then the surest means of determination. E. ciliaris also differs in the possession of only 2 stamens.  Specimens with the inflorescence reduced to an ovoid head have been separated as var. brachystachya, but they seem to be no more than a dwarfed form of arid habitats. Some such specimens have unusually short or scanty palea-hairs.  American plants are conspecific with the African, but have a different, though overlapping, range of variation.

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

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 ciliaris (L.) R. Br. [family POACEAE], in Tuckey, Narr. Exp. Congo, App.: 478 (1818); Ann. list grasses Ug.: 18 (1947); F.P.N.A. 3: 160 (1955); F.P.S. 3: 450 (1956); R.K.G.: 17 (1958); Ann. list Nyasaland grasses: 39 (1958); I.G.U.: 29 (1960); G.T.: 36 (1965); Clayton in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 3: 386 (1972). Type: Jamaica (LINN, holo.!) Poa ciliaris L. [family POACEAE], Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 2: 875 (1759) Megastachya ciliaris (L.) P. Beauv. [family POACEAE], Ess. Agrost.: 74, 167 (1812) Cynodon ciliaris (L.) Rasp [family POACEAE], in Ann. Sci. Nat. 5: 302 (1825) Eragrostis pulchella Parl. [family POACEAE], in Atti Riun. Sci. Ital. 8: 586 (1847). Type: Cape Verde Is., Hooker 81 (K, iso.!) Eragrostis ciliaris Boiss. var. brachystachya [family POACEAE], Fl. Orient. 5: 582 (1884); F.P.S. 3: 450 (1956). Types: Arabia, Schweinfurth 1091 & Baluchistan, Stocks (both G, syn.!) Eragrostis ciliaris Hack. var. latifolia [family POACEAE], in Denks. Kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Naturw. K1. 78: 403 (1905). Type: Mozambique, Tete, Boroma [Boruma], Menyhart 1125 (Z, iso.!)
Information
Tufted annual; culms 5–60 cm. high, erect. Leaf-blades flat, up to 12 cm. long and 5 mm. wide. Panicle spike-like, but often ± lobed or interrupted, 1–20 cm. long, woolly, the spikelets densely clustered. Spikelets 6–12-flowered, ovate, 2–4.5 mm. long, fluffy, often purplish, breaking up from the apex, the rhachilla fragile; glumes lanceolate, subequal, 0.7–1.2 mm. long, acute; lemmas oblong-elliptic, 0.9–1.5 mm. long, the keels (at least in the upper lemmas) bearing a few short stiff hairs, otherwise smooth, broadly obtuse, ± obscurely mucronate; palea-keels tuberculate-ciliate, the hairs 0.6–0.7 mm. long, exceeding the width of the adjacent floret; anthers 2, 0.2 mm. long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.3–0.5 mm. long. Fig. 60/2, p. 190.
Range
DISTR. U1–4; K1, 2, 4, 5, 7; T1–4, 6–8; Z; P tropical and South Africa, extending through Arabia and the Mascarene Is. to India; tropical America
Altitude range
sea-level to 1400 m., or sometimes more
Distribution
KENYA Northern Frontier Province Dandu, 16 May 1952, Gillett 13213!KENYA Teita District 65 km. on Voi-Nairobi road, 14 Jan. 1962, Greenway 10470 !KENYA Kilifi District Malindi, 18 Aug. 1949, Bogdan 2618 !TANZANIA Tanga District Kihuhwi R., 19 Oct. 1932, Greenway 3249 !TANZANIA Mpanda/Ufipa District Rukwa, Rungwa R., 21 Oct. 1963, Vesey-FitzGerald 4200!TANZANIA Tunduru District just E. of Songea District boundary, 5 June 1956, Milne-Redhead & Taylor 10618 !TANZANIA Zanzibar I., Bweleo, 28 Jan. 1929, Greenway 1219 !TANZANIA Pemba I., Weti, Apr. 1929, Waterland 3UGANDA Teso District Katakwi, 16 Feb. 1956, Harker 240!UGANDA Mbale District Budama-Bunguli, 20 June 1927, Snowden 1121! & Tororo, 5 May 1941, A. S. Thomas 3851!
Notes
The woolly spike is usually distinctive, but in some specimens the panicle shape may approach extreme forms of E. tenella or E. arenicola; the cilia on the lemma-keel, though rather obscure, are then the surest means of determination. E. ciliaris also differs in the possession of only 2 stamens.  Specimens with the inflorescence reduced to an ovoid head have been separated as var. brachystachya, but they seem to be no more than a dwarfed form of arid habitats. Some such specimens have unusually short or scanty palea-hairs.  American plants are conspecific with the African, but have a different, though overlapping, range of variation.

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

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 ciliaris (L.) R. Br. [family POACEAE], in Tuckey, Narr. Exp. Congo, App.: 478 (1818); Ann. list grasses Ug.: 18 (1947); F.P.N.A. 3: 160 (1955); F.P.S. 3: 450 (1956); R.K.G.: 17 (1958); Ann. list Nyasaland grasses: 39 (1958); I.G.U.: 29 (1960); G.T.: 36 (1965); Clayton in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 3: 386 (1972). Type: Jamaica (LINN, holo.!) Poa ciliaris L. [family POACEAE], Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 2: 875 (1759) Megastachya ciliaris (L.) P. Beauv. [family POACEAE], Ess. Agrost.: 74, 167 (1812) Cynodon ciliaris (L.) Rasp [family POACEAE], in Ann. Sci. Nat. 5: 302 (1825) Eragrostis pulchella Parl. [family POACEAE], in Atti Riun. Sci. Ital. 8: 586 (1847). Type: Cape Verde Is., Hooker 81 (K, iso.!) Eragrostis ciliaris Boiss. var. brachystachya [family POACEAE], Fl. Orient. 5: 582 (1884); F.P.S. 3: 450 (1956). Types: Arabia, Schweinfurth 1091 & Baluchistan, Stocks (both G, syn.!) Eragrostis ciliaris Hack. var. latifolia [family POACEAE], in Denks. Kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Naturw. K1. 78: 403 (1905). Type: Mozambique, Tete, Boroma [Boruma], Menyhart 1125 (Z, iso.!)
Information
Tufted annual; culms 5–60 cm. high, erect. Leaf-blades flat, up to 12 cm. long and 5 mm. wide. Panicle spike-like, but often ± lobed or interrupted, 1–20 cm. long, woolly, the spikelets densely clustered. Spikelets 6–12-flowered, ovate, 2–4.5 mm. long, fluffy, often purplish, breaking up from the apex, the rhachilla fragile; glumes lanceolate, subequal, 0.7–1.2 mm. long, acute; lemmas oblong-elliptic, 0.9–1.5 mm. long, the keels (at least in the upper lemmas) bearing a few short stiff hairs, otherwise smooth, broadly obtuse, ± obscurely mucronate; palea-keels tuberculate-ciliate, the hairs 0.6–0.7 mm. long, exceeding the width of the adjacent floret; anthers 2, 0.2 mm. long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.3–0.5 mm. long. Fig. 60/2, p. 190.
Range
DISTR. U1–4; K1, 2, 4, 5, 7; T1–4, 6–8; Z; P tropical and South Africa, extending through Arabia and the Mascarene Is. to India; tropical America
Altitude range
sea-level to 1400 m., or sometimes more
Distribution
KENYA Northern Frontier Province Dandu, 16 May 1952, Gillett 13213!KENYA Teita District 65 km. on Voi-Nairobi road, 14 Jan. 1962, Greenway 10470 !KENYA Kilifi District Malindi, 18 Aug. 1949, Bogdan 2618 !TANZANIA Tanga District Kihuhwi R., 19 Oct. 1932, Greenway 3249 !TANZANIA Mpanda/Ufipa District Rukwa, Rungwa R., 21 Oct. 1963, Vesey-FitzGerald 4200!TANZANIA Tunduru District just E. of Songea District boundary, 5 June 1956, Milne-Redhead & Taylor 10618 !TANZANIA Zanzibar I., Bweleo, 28 Jan. 1929, Greenway 1219 !TANZANIA Pemba I., Weti, Apr. 1929, Waterland 3UGANDA Teso District Katakwi, 16 Feb. 1956, Harker 240!UGANDA Mbale District Budama-Bunguli, 20 June 1927, Snowden 1121! & Tororo, 5 May 1941, A. S. Thomas 3851!
Notes
The woolly spike is usually distinctive, but in some specimens the panicle shape may approach extreme forms of E. tenella or E. arenicola; the cilia on the lemma-keel, though rather obscure, are then the surest means of determination. E. ciliaris also differs in the possession of only 2 stamens.  Specimens with the inflorescence reduced to an ovoid head have been separated as var. brachystachya, but they seem to be no more than a dwarfed form of arid habitats. Some such specimens have unusually short or scanty palea-hairs.  American plants are conspecific with the African, but have a different, though overlapping, range of variation.
ERAGROSTIS ciliaris (L.) R. Br. [family POACEAE]
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