Oxytenanthera

Munro
Source: 
SSA
Description: 
Perennial, tufted, with woody culms; culm sheath blades narrow. Leaf blade linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, pseudopetiolated, expanded, deciduous from sheath. Inflorescence a dense, spiny, globose cluster of spikelets at tips of leafy branchlets, each spikelet cluster subtended by a short-bladed papery sheath, and individual spikelets subtended by several short papery bracts. Spikelet falling entire at maturity; glumes unequal, 17-30-nerved with cross-nerves connecting them. Florets 1-4; lower florets male or sterile; upper florets bisexual; lemma 11-23-nerved with cross-nerves, apically awned; palea 16-19-nerved. Lodicules usually 0. Stamens 6; filaments united. Ovary glabrous; apical appendage long, stiff and tapering. x= 12 (polyploidy).
Distribution: 
Species 1, Africa: Oxytenanthera abyssinica (A.Rich.) Munro, specimens from Northern Province resemble this species vegetatively but until flowering material is obtained the identification will remain tentative.
Classification: 
POACEAE

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Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith