Cypholepis Chiov.
Sometimes referred to Coelachyrum
Habit, vegetative morphology. Perennial; densely caespitose. Culms 30–100 cm high; herbaceous. Culm nodes glabrous. Plants unarmed. Leaves not basally aggregated. Leaf blades linear; narrow; usually flat; without abaxial multicellular glands; without cross venation; a fringed membrane.
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence of spicate main branches; non-digitate. Primary inflorescence branches 2–8 (these distant, erect). Spikelet-bearing axes spicate ‘racemes’; persistent. Spikelets solitary; secund; biseriate; shortly pedicellate.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 5–10 mm long; compressed laterally; disarticulating above the glumes; disarticulating between the florets. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret; the rachilla extension with incomplete florets.
Glumes two; more or less equal; long relative to the adjacent lemmas; hairless; not pointed (obtuse); awnless; carinate to non-carinate (rounded to slightly keeled on the back); similar (lanceolate, membranous). Lower glume 1 nerved. Upper glume usually 1 nerved. Spikelets with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets distal to the female-fertile florets. The distal incomplete florets male. Spikelets without proximal incomplete florets.
Female-fertile florets 7–10. Lemmas not saccate; decidedly firmer than the glumes (membranous, becoming cartilaginous below); not becoming indurated; entire; pointed, or blunt (acute or obtuse); awnless; hairy (pilose with club-shaped hairs on the lower back); 3 nerved. Palea present; conspicuous but relatively short (about half the lemma length); entire (obtuse); awnless, without apical setae; not indurated (hyaline). Lodicules present (minute); 2; free; fleshy; glabrous. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous (?). Styles free to their bases. Stigmas 2.
Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit small (1.2–1.4 mm long); compressed dorsiventrally (concavo-convex); smooth. Hilum short. Pericarp free. Embryo large.
Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Costal/intercostal zonation conspicuous. Papillae present; intercostal (conspicuous). Intercostal papillae over-arching the stomata (at one end); consisting of one oblique swelling per cell. Long-cells markedly different in shape costally and intercostally (the costals narrower); of similar wall thickness costally and intercostally (medium thick walled). Mid-intercostal long-cells rectangular; having markedly sinuous walls to having straight or only gently undulating walls. Microhairs present; more or less spherical to elongated; clearly two-celled; chloridoid-type. Microhair apical cell wall of similar thickness/rigidity to that of the basal cell. Microhair basal cells 21 microns long. Microhair total length/width at septum 3. Microhair apical cell/total length ratio 0.4. Stomata common. Subsidiaries non-papillate; low to high dome-shaped. Guard-cells overlapped by the interstomatals (mostly, slightly). Intercostal short-cells absent or very rare. Intercostal silica bodies absent. Prickles abundant costally. Crown cells absent. Costal short-cells conspicuously in long rows. Costal silica bodies present in alternate cell files of the costal zones; large saddle shaped.
Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. Lamina mid-zone in transverse section open.
C4; XyMS+. PCR sheath outlines uneven. PCR sheaths of the primary vascular bundles interrupted; interrupted both abaxially and adaxially. PCR sheath extensions absent. PCR cell chloroplasts centripetal. Leaf blade ‘nodular’ in section to adaxially flat; with the ribs very irregular in sizes. Midrib conspicuous; having a conventional arc of bundles (a large bundle, flanked on each side by two smaller ones); with colourless mesophyll adaxially. Bulliforms present in discrete, regular adaxial groups; in simple fans. All the vascular bundles accompanied by sclerenchyma. Combined sclerenchyma girders present (with the larger bundles); forming ‘figures’. Sclerenchyma all associated with vascular bundles. The lamina margins with fibres.
Taxonomy. Chloridoideae; main chloridoid assemblage.
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 1 species; northeast to southeast and southern Africa. Xerophytic; species of open habitats.
Paleotropical and Cape. African. Sudano-Angolan and Namib-Karoo. Somalo-Ethiopian, South Tropical African, and Kalaharian.
Rusts and smuts. Rusts — Puccinia. Taxonomically wide-ranging species: ‘Uromyces’ eragrostidis.
References, etc. Leaf anatomical: this project.
Illustrations. • Abaxial epidermis 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).
