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SNOWDENIA polystachya (Fresen.) Pilg. [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, page 451, (1982) Author: W. D. CLAYTON and S.A. RENVOIZE
Names
SNOWDENIA polystachya (Fresen.) Pilg. [family POACEAE], in N.B.G.B. 14: 103 (1938); F.P.S. 3: 538 (1956); R.K.G.: 51 (1958); G.T.: 80 (1965). Type: Ethiopia, without precise locality, Rueppell (FR, holo.!) Beckera polystachya Fresen. [family POACEAE], in Mus. Senckenb. 2: 132 (1837) Beckera valida Fresen. [family POACEAE], in Bot. Zeit. 2: 354 (1844). Type: cultivated in Europe, seed collected by Schimper in Ethiopia, Gay (K, iso.!) Beckera schimperi Hochst. [family POACEAE], in Flora 27: 512, 513 (1844). Type: Ethiopia, Adua [Adoa], Schimper 91 (K, iso.!) Beckera polystachya (Hochst.) Th. Dur. & Schinz var. schimperi [family POACEAE], Consp. Fl. Afr. 5: 736 (1894)
Information
Annual; culms 15–180 cm. high, decumbent and rooting at the nodes below, robust and ascending or weak and rambling above. Leaf-blades linear to narrowly lanceolate, 4–30 cm. long, 2–18 mm. wide; sheaths smooth on the nerves, or with tubercle-based hairs near the top. Racemes 2–5 cm. long, axillary and distant or crowded into a false panicle. Spikelets lanceolate-oblong, 2–3.3 mm. long; lower lemma abruptly acute, obtuse or minutely bidentate, with a slender awn 1–7 mm. long (rarely awnless); upper lemma obtuse or truncate, rarely mucronate.
Range
DISTR. K3, 4; T2
Altitude range
2100–2700 m.
Distribution
KENYA Nakuru District Egerton College, 5 Nov. 1976, Gitonga 201! & Mau Narok, Collins 16223!KENYA Kiambu District Limuru, Ellis’ Farm, 17 July 1951, Bogdan 3204!TANZANIA Northern Province, 8 July 1946, Fuggles Couchman 63/46!
Distribution (external)
Sudan Ethiopia Yemen
Notes
There is considerable variation in the robustness of the culms, but this seems to be of no taxonomic significance.
SNOWDENIA polystachya (Fresen.) Pilg. [family POACEAE]
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