Grass Genera of the World

L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz


Chandrasekharania V.J. Nair, V.S. Ramachandran & P.V. Sreekumar

Named for N. Chandrasekharan Nair, Indian botanist.

Habit, vegetative morphology. Annual; decumbent. Culms 20–40 cm high; herbaceous; unbranched above. Culm nodes glabrous. Leaves not basally aggregated; non-auriculate. Leaf blades ovate; narrow (but relatively broad); conspicuously cordate; persistent; an unfringed membrane (obscure).

Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets.

Inflorescence. Inflorescence paniculate; contracted; capitate to more or less ovoid; not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs. Spikelet-bearing axes persistent. Spikelets not secund; pedicellate (the scabrid pedicels up to 1.5 mm long).

Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 5–6 mm long; compressed laterally; disarticulating above the glumes; disarticulating between the florets (supposedly). Rachilla terminated by a female-fertile floret. Callus short.

Glumes present; two; very unequal; about equalling the spikelets; (G2) long relative to the adjacent lemmas; hairy (G1 densely hairy with tubercle-based hairs, on the upper half), or hairless (the G2 merely scaberulous on the nerves); without conspicuous tufts or rows of hairs; pointed; shortly awned (each attenuate into a straight or curved, scabrous, 3 mm awn); very dissimilar (the smaller G1 being hairy). Lower glume 7 nerved. Upper glume 7 nerved. Spikelets with female-fertile florets only; without proximal incomplete florets.

Female-fertile florets 2. Lemmas leathery or firmly membranous; not becoming indurated; incised; 2 lobed; not deeply cleft (minutely bidentate); awned. Awns 1; median; from a sinus; non-geniculate; straight; hairless (scabrid); much shorter than the body of the lemma (1.5–2 mm long). Lemmas hairless; smooth, save for the scaberulous midrib; 5 nerved. Palea present; relatively long; apically notched; awnless, without apical setae (hairy below); thinner than the lemma (hyaline); not indurated; 2-nerved; 2-keeled. Palea keels wingless. Lodicules present; 2; free; fleshy; glabrous. Stamens 3. Anthers 1.25 mm long; not penicillate; without an apically prolonged connective. Ovary glabrous. Styles free to their bases. Stigmas 2.

Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit small (about 1 mm long). Hilum short (punctiform).

Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. C3 (‘leaf anatomy almost identical to Jansenella’, according to Clayton & Renvoize 1986).

Taxonomy. Panicoideae (?); Panicodae; Arundinelleae (? - not reliably classifiable without a better description).

Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 1 species; India.

Paleotropical. Indomalesian. Indian.

References, etc. Morphological/taxonomic: Nair, Ramachandran and Sreekumar 1982.

Special comments. Anatomical data wanting.


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).

Index