Brylkinia Schmidt
Habit, vegetative morphology. Slender perennial; rhizomatous. Culms 25–70 cm high; herbaceous. Culm nodes glabrous. Leaves non-auriculate. Sheath margins joined. Leaf blades linear; narrow; 3–6 mm wide; flat; persistent; an unfringed membrane; 0.1 mm long.
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence a single raceme; espatheate; not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs. Spikelet-bearing axes persistent. Spikelets not secund (but pendulous, falling to one side); pedicellate.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 10–30 mm long; compressed laterally; falling with the glumes (from the base of the pedicel). Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret. Hairy callus absent.
Glumes two (narrow); very unequal; shorter than the spikelets; shorter than the adjacent lemmas; pointed (acuminate); awnless; similar (herbaceous). Lower glume 3 nerved. Upper glume 5 nerved. Spikelets with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets proximal to the female-fertile florets. Spikelets with proximal incomplete florets. The proximal incomplete florets 2; epaleate; sterile. The proximal lemmas acuminate; awnless; similar in texture to the female-fertile lemmas; not becoming indurated.
Female-fertile florets 1. Lemmas similar in texture to the glumes to decidedly firmer than the glumes (firmly herbaceous to thinly leathery); not becoming indurated; awned. Awns 1; median; dorsal; from near the top; non-geniculate; recurving (slightly bowed below, with a wing of green tissue extending from the upper back of the lemma to partway along awn). Lemmas carinate; 7 nerved. Palea present; relatively long; thinner than the lemma; 2-nerved (the keels closely adjacent); 2-keeled. Lodicules present (large, rectangular); 2; joined; membranous; glabrous; not toothed; not or scarcely vascularized. Stamens 3. Anthers 1.3–1.8 mm long. Ovary glabrous. Styles free to their bases. Stigmas 2; white.
Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit free from both lemma and palea; with a thickened and glossy, umbonate cap. Hilum long-linear. Embryo small. Endosperm containing compound starch grains. Embryo with an epiblast; without a scutellar tail; with a negligible mesocotyl internode. Embryonic leaf margins meeting.
Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Costal/intercostal zonation conspicuous. Papillae absent. Mid-intercostal long-cells having markedly sinuous walls. Microhairs absent (and absent adaxially). Stomata absent or very rare. Intercostal short-cells common; in cork/silica-cell pairs (and solitary); silicified. Intercostal silica bodies tall-and-narrow. Costal short-cells neither distinctly grouped into long rows nor predominantly paired. Costal silica bodies horizontally-elongated crenate/sinuous to horizontally-elongated smooth.
Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. C3; XyMS+. Leaf blade with distinct, prominent adaxial ribs, or ‘nodular’ in section; with the ribs more or less constant in size. Midrib conspicuous; with one bundle only. Bulliforms present in discrete, regular adaxial groups; in simple fans. All the vascular bundles accompanied by sclerenchyma.
Special diagnostic feature. Lemma awn winged, the wing extending down the upper back of the lemma.
Cytology. Chromosome base number, x = 10. 2n = 40. 4 ploid. Chromosomes ‘medium sized’.
Taxonomy. Pooideae; Poodae; Meliceae.
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 1 species; Japan, Manchuria, Sakhalin. Mesophytic; shade species; glycophytic. Woodland.
Holarctic. Boreal. Euro-Siberian and Eastern Asian. Siberian.
References, etc. Morphological/taxonomic: Macfarlane and Watson 1980. Leaf anatomical: Metcalfe 1960; 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).