Calyptochloa C.E. Hubb.
Habit, vegetative morphology. Mat-forming perennial; decumbent. Culms 15–40 cm high; herbaceous. Culm nodes glabrous. Culm internodes hollow. Young shoots intravaginal. Leaves not basally aggregated; non-auriculate. Leaf blades narrow; 2–8 mm wide; folded; without cross venation; disarticulating from the sheaths; rolled in bud; a fringe of hairs. Contra-ligule absent.
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets. The spikelets all alike in sexuality. Plants exposed-cleistogamous, or chasmogamous; with hidden cleistogenes, or without hidden cleistogenes. The hidden cleistogenes when present, in the leaf sheaths (borne singly, very modified).
Inflorescence. Inflorescence few spikeleted; a single raceme (loose, spike-like); espatheate; not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs. Spikelet-bearing axes persistent. Spikelets solitary; not secund; pedicellate. Pedicel apices truncate, or cupuliform.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 3.5 mm long; lanceolate, or ovate; adaxial; compressed dorsiventrally; falling with the glumes. Rachilla terminated by a female-fertile floret. Hairy callus absent.
Glumes two; very unequal; (the longer) long relative to the adjacent lemmas; (the upper) hairy (stiffly pilose dorsally and on the margins); awnless; very dissimilar (the lower vestigial, represented by a tiny scale). Lower glume 0 nerved. Upper glume 7 nerved. Spikelets with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets proximal to the female-fertile florets. Spikelets with proximal incomplete florets. The proximal incomplete florets 1; epaleate; sterile. The proximal lemmas awnless; 7 nerved; hairy, decidedly exceeding the female-fertile lemmas; less firm than the female-fertile lemmas to similar in texture to the female-fertile lemmas (chartaceous); not becoming indurated.
Female-fertile florets 1. Lemmas similar in texture to the glumes to decidedly firmer than the glumes; striate; becoming indurated (slightly); yellow in fruit, or brown in fruit; entire; pointed; awned (attenuate into the awn). Awns 1; median; apical; non-geniculate; slightly curved; much shorter than the body of the lemma to about as long as the body of the lemma. Lemmas hairless; non-carinate; having the margins lying flat on the palea; 3 nerved. Palea present; relatively long; entire (pointed); awnless, without apical setae; textured like the lemma; 2-nerved. Lodicules present; 2; free; fleshy; glabrous. Stamens 3. Anthers 1.2–2 mm long; not penicillate. Ovary glabrous. Styles free to their bases. Stigmas 2.
Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit small; compressed dorsiventrally. Hilum short. Embryo large; waisted.
Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Costal/intercostal zonation conspicuous. Papillae absent. Long-cells similar in shape costally and intercostally (narrow-rectangular); of similar wall thickness costally and intercostally (thin walled). Mid-intercostal long-cells rectangular; having markedly sinuous walls. Microhairs present; panicoid-type; 54–69 microns long; 6–9 microns wide at the septum. Microhair total length/width at septum 6.3–10. Microhair apical cells 21–33 microns long. Microhair apical cell/total length ratio 0.39–0.48. Stomata common; 33–36 microns long. Subsidiaries triangular. Guard-cells overlapping to flush with the interstomatals. Intercostal short-cells common; in cork/silica-cell pairs (mainly); silicified. Costal short-cells conspicuously in long rows. Costal silica bodies ‘panicoid-type’.
Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. C3; XyMS+. Mesophyll with radiate chlorenchyma; Isachne-type. Leaf blade adaxially flat. Midrib not readily distinguishable; with one bundle only. Bulliforms present in discrete, regular adaxial groups; in simple fans. All the vascular bundles accompanied by sclerenchyma. Combined sclerenchyma girders present; forming ‘figures’, or nowhere forming ‘figures’. Sclerenchyma all associated with vascular bundles.
Taxonomy. Panicoideae; Panicodae; Paniceae.
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 1 species; Australia. Shade species; glycophytic. Forests.
Australian. North and East Australian. Tropical North and East Australian.
References, etc. Morphological/taxonomic: Hubbard 1933c. Leaf anatomical: 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).