Corynephorus P. Beauv.
From the Greek korynephorus (club-bearing), referring to the lemma awn.
Including Anachortus Jir sek and Chrtek
Habit, vegetative morphology. Annual, or perennial; caespitose. Culms 10–60 cm high; herbaceous; unbranched above. Culm nodes glabrous. Culm internodes hollow. Leaves non-auriculate. Leaf blades linear; narrow; 0.3 to 0.8 mm in diameter; setaceous, or not setaceous; folded, or rolled and acicular; without cross venation; persistent; an unfringed membrane; not truncate; 2–4 mm long.
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence paniculate; open, or contracted; with capillary branchlets, or without capillary branchlets; espatheate; not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs. Spikelet-bearing axes persistent. Spikelets not secund; pedicellate.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 3–5 mm long; compressed laterally; disarticulating above the glumes; disarticulating between the florets. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret; hairy; the rachilla extension naked. Hairy callus present. Callus short.
Glumes two; more or less equal; about equalling the spikelets; long relative to the adjacent lemmas; pointed; awnless; carinate; similar (lanceolate). Lower glume 1 nerved. Upper glume 1 nerved, or 3 nerved (at base). Spikelets with female-fertile florets only; without proximal incomplete florets.
Female-fertile florets 2. Lemmas similar in texture to the glumes (thinly membranous); not becoming indurated; incised; shortly 2 lobed; not deeply cleft (minutely bidenticulate); awned. Awns 1; median; dorsal; from well down the back; geniculate (and peculiar, with a clavate apex enclosed by the glumes, and with a ring of minute hairs distal to the twisted lower half); much longer than the body of the lemma; entered by one vein. Lemmas hairless; non-carinate; 1 nerved. Palea present; relatively long; tightly clasped by the lemma; apically notched; awnless, without apical setae; 2-nerved. Lodicules present; 2; free; membranous; glabrous; toothed. Stamens 3. Anthers 0.5–1.5 mm long, or 0.4–0.5 mm long; not penicillate. Ovary glabrous. Styles free to their bases. Stigmas 2.
Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit usually, slightly adhering to lemma and/or palea; small; longitudinally grooved; compressed dorsiventrally. Hilum short. Embryo small; not waisted. Endosperm liquid in the mature fruit, or hard; with lipid.
Seedling with a short mesocotyl; with a loose coleoptile, or with a tight coleoptile. First seedling leaf with a well-developed lamina. The lamina narrow; erect; 3 veined.
Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Costal/intercostal zonation lacking. Papillae absent. Microhairs absent. Stomata absent or very rare. Intercostal short-cells common; in cork/silica-cell pairs and not paired; silicified (when paired). Prickles abundant. Costal short-cells predominantly paired. Costal silica bodies rounded, tall-and-narrow, and crescentic.
Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. C3; XyMS+. Mesophyll with radiate chlorenchyma; without adaxial palisade. Leaf blade with distinct, prominent adaxial ribs (small, in the adaxial groove). Midrib not readily distinguishable (except by its position); with one bundle only. Bulliforms not present in discrete, regular adaxial groups. Combined sclerenchyma girders absent. Sclerenchyma not all bundle-associated. The ‘extra’ sclerenchyma in a continuous abaxial layer.
Special diagnostic feature. Lemmas awned, the awn bearing a ring of minute hairs at the middle, and apically clavate.
Cytology. Chromosome base number, x = 7. 2n = 14. 2 ploid. Chromosomes ‘large’. Haploid nuclear DNA content 1.2 pg (1 species). Mean diploid 2c DNA value 2.3 pg.
Taxonomy. Pooideae; Poodae; Aveneae.
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 5 species; Europe, Mediterranean. Commonly adventive. Xerophytic; species of open habitats. In sandy places, often coastal.
Holarctic and Paleotropical. Boreal and Tethyan. African. Euro-Siberian. Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian. Saharo-Sindian. European.
Rusts and smuts. Rusts — Puccinia. Taxonomically wide-ranging species: Puccinia graminis.
References, etc. Leaf anatomical: this project.
Illustrations. • General aspect. • Spikelets. • Transverse section of leaf blade
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).
