Bellardiochloa Chiov.
Named for Piedemontese botanist, L. Bellardi.
Sometimes referred to Poa
Habit, vegetative morphology. Perennial; caespitose (densely). Culms 8–50 cm high; herbaceous. Leaves non-auriculate. Leaf blades linear; narrow; 1 mm wide; setaceous (glaucous); rolled; without cross venation; persistent; ligule present; an unfringed membrane; not truncate; 2–7 mm long.
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence paniculate; open, or contracted; espatheate; not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs. Spikelet-bearing axes persistent. Spikelets not secund; pedicellate.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 3–7.5 mm long; compressed laterally; disarticulating above the glumes. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret; hairy; the rachilla extension with incomplete florets. Hairy callus present.
Glumes two; very unequal to more or less equal; shorter than the spikelets; shorter than the adjacent lemmas; pointed (acute); awnless; carinate; similar. Lower glume 3 nerved. Upper glume 3 nerved. Spikelets with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets distal to the female-fertile florets. Spikelets without proximal incomplete florets.
Female-fertile florets 2–8. Lemmas similar in texture to the glumes; not becoming indurated; entire, or incised; when entire pointed, or blunt; mucronate, or awned (very shortly so). Awns 1; median; from a sinus (or the mucro from a notch); non-geniculate; much shorter than the body of the lemma; entered by one vein. Lemmas hairless (shortly hairy at base, scabrid on keels, not lanate); carinate; without a germination flap; 5 nerved. Palea present; relatively long; 2-nerved; 2-keeled (hairy between the keels). Lodicules present; 2; free; membranous; glabrous; toothed, or not toothed; not or scarcely vascularized. Stamens 3. Anthers 1.4–2.5 mm long. Ovary glabrous. Styles free to their bases. Stigmas 2.
Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit adhering to lemma and/or palea; small (c. 1.8 mm long); compressed dorsiventrally. Hilum short. Embryo small. Endosperm hard; with lipid. Embryo with an epiblast; without a scutellar tail; with a negligible mesocotyl internode.
Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Costal/intercostal zonation conspicuous. Papillae absent. Long-cells markedly different in shape costally and intercostally (the costals much narrower); of similar wall thickness costally and intercostally (thin walled). Mid-intercostal long-cells rectangular; having markedly sinuous walls (the sinuosity associated with conspicuous pitting). Microhairs absent. Stomata absent or very rare (none seen). Intercostal short-cells common; commonly in cork/silica-cell pairs; silicified. Intercostal silica bodies rounded to crescentic. With scattered costal and intercostal prickles. Costal short-cells predominantly paired. Costal silica bodies present and well developed; rounded and crescentic.
Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. C3; XyMS+. Leaf blade with distinct, prominent adaxial ribs; with the ribs more or less constant in size (round topped, one per bundle). Midrib conspicuous to not readily distinguishable; with one bundle only. The lamina symmetrical on either side of the midrib. Bulliforms present in discrete, regular adaxial groups, or not present in discrete, regular adaxial groups (inconspicuous, in the material seen); if present, in simple fans (of small cells). All the vascular bundles accompanied by sclerenchyma. Combined sclerenchyma girders mostly absent (the material sectioned exhibiting only one combined girder, associated with the marginal bundle on one side of the blade, the others (including the midrib) with broad-footed abaxial girders and adaxial strands). Sclerenchyma all associated with vascular bundles, or not all bundle-associated (in one of the two specimens seen). The ‘extra’ sclerenchyma when present, in a continuous abaxial layer.
Cytology. Chromosome base number, x = 7. 2n = 14. 2 ploid. Chromosomes ‘large’.
Taxonomy. Pooideae; Poodae; Poeae.
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 1 species; southern Europe, western Asia.
Holarctic and Paleotropical. Boreal and Tethyan. African. Euro-Siberian. Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian. Sudano-Angolan and West African Rainforest. European. Sahelo-Sudanian.
References, etc. Leaf anatomical: this project.
Cite this publication as: Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. (1992 onwards). ‘Grass Genera of the World: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval; including Synonyms, Morphology, Anatomy, Physiology, Phytochemistry, Cytology, Classification, Pathogens, World and Local Distribution, and References.’ http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/. Version: 18th August 1999. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993 onwards, 1998), and Watson and Dallwitz (1994), and Watson, Dallwitz, and Johnston (1986) should also be cited (see References).