Bromuniola Stapf & C.E. Hubb.
Habit, vegetative morphology. Perennial; loosely caespitose. Culms 80–120 cm high; herbaceous. Culm internodes solid. Leaves without auricular setae. Leaf blades lanceolate; rolled; pseudopetiolate to not pseudopetiolate; cross veined; a fringed membrane.
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence relatively few spikeleted; paniculate; open (broad, the branches thin and spreading); espatheate; not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs. Spikelet-bearing axes persistent. Spikelets not secund.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 10–17 mm long; compressed laterally; disarticulating above the glumes (the glumes and the sterile basal floret persisting on the pedicel); disarticulating between the florets. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret; hairy (and sinuous). Hairy callus absent.
Glumes present; two; very unequal to more or less equal; shorter than the adjacent lemmas; hairless; pointed (sometimes mucronate); awnless; carinate; similar (herbaceous, the margins hyaline). Lower glume 3–5 nerved. Upper glume 3–5 nerved. Spikelets with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets proximal to the female-fertile florets, or both distal and proximal to the female-fertile florets. Spikelets with proximal incomplete florets. The proximal incomplete florets 1; paleate, or epaleate (often); sterile. The proximal lemmas awned (subulate), or awnless; 5–7 nerved; exceeded by the female-fertile lemmas; similar in texture to the female-fertile lemmas; not becoming indurated.
Female-fertile florets 4–10. Lemmas similar in texture to the glumes (herbaceous); not becoming indurated; entire, or incised (slightly, at the tip); not deeply cleft; awned. Awns 1; median; from a sinus, or apical; non-geniculate; hairless to hairy; much shorter than the body of the lemma to about as long as the body of the lemma. Lemmas hairless (keels scabrid); glabrous (the keels scabrid); carinate; 5–7 nerved. Palea present; conspicuous but relatively short; entire; awnless, without apical setae; 2-nerved; 2-keeled (and hunch-backed, the keels ciliate; projecting from the lemma into sinuations of the rachilla). Lodicules present; 2; free; fleshy. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous. Styles free to their bases. Stigmas 2.
Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit free from both lemma and palea (but falling with them); compressed laterally (obliquely ovoid). Hilum short. Embryo large (about 1/3 of the fruit length); with an epiblast; with a scutellar tail; with an elongated mesocotyl internode. Embryonic leaf margins overlapping.
Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Costal/intercostal zonation conspicuous. Papillae absent. Mid-intercostal long-cells having markedly sinuous walls. Microhairs present (partly sunken); panicoid-type; 33–46 microns long. Microhair apical cells 26–30(–41) microns long. Microhair apical cell/total length ratio 0.75. Stomata common. Subsidiaries triangular. Intercostal short-cells absent or very rare. Costal short-cells conspicuously in long rows. Costal silica bodies ‘panicoid-type’; shortly dumb-bell shaped, or cross shaped.
Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. C3; XyMS+. Mesophyll with radiate chlorenchyma (indistinctly); without arm cells (?); without fusoids. Leaf blade adaxially flat. Midrib conspicuous (adaxially and abaxially projecting); having a conventional arc of bundles (the median flanked by 2 small laterals). Bulliforms present in discrete, regular adaxial groups. All the vascular bundles accompanied by sclerenchyma (exceptions near margins). Combined sclerenchyma girders present; forming ‘figures’ (in the midrib). Sclerenchyma all associated with vascular bundles.
Culm anatomy. Culm internode bundles scattered.
Taxonomy. Centothecoideae; Centotheceae.
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 1 species; Angola. Shade species; glycophytic. Forests.
Paleotropical. African. Sudano-Angolan. South Tropical African.
References, etc. Leaf anatomical: Metcalfe 1960 and 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).