Arundinaria tecta |
Poaceae subfam. bambusoideae |
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switch cane |
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Habit | Plants usually perennial, rarely annual; rhizomatous. | |||||
Rhizomes | normally horizontal for only a short distance before turning up to form a culm, hollow-centered, air canals present. |
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Foliage | leaves: abaxial ligules fimbriate to lacerate, sometimes ciliate; blades 7-23 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, coriaceous, persistent, evergreen, bases rounded, abaxial surfaces densely pubescent or glabrous, strongly cross veined, adaxial surfaces pubescent. |
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Inflorescences | spicate, racemose, or paniculate, comprising spikelets or pseudospikelets, the spikelets lacking subtending bracts and prophylls, completing their development during 1 period of growth, the pseudospikelets having subtending bracts, prophylls, and basal bud-bearing bracts developing 2 or more orders of true spikelets with different phases of maturity. |
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Spikelets | 3-5 cm, with 6-12 florets, the first occasionally sterile. |
bisexual or unisexual, with 1 to many florets. |
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Glumes | unequal, glabrous or pubescent; lowest glume obtuse to acuminate or absent; lemmas 1.2-2 cm, glabrous or nearly so. |
absent or 1-2+; lemmas without uncinate hairs, sometimes awned, awns single; paleas well developed; lodicules (0)3(6+), membranous, vascularized, often ciliate; anthers usually 2, 3,or 6, rarely 10-120; ovaries glabrous or hairy, sometimes with an apical appendage; haustorial synergids absent; styles or style branches 1-4. |
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Caryopses | oblong, beaked, a rudimentary hooked style branch present below the beak. |
hila linear, usually as long as the caryopses; endosperm hard, without lipid, containing compound starch grains; embryos small relative to the caryopses; epiblasts present; scutellar cleft present; mesocotyl internode absent; embryonic leaf margins overlapping, x = 7,9, 10, 11, 12. |
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Culm(s) | leaves persistent to tardily deciduous; sheaths 11-18 cm; fimbriae 1.5-8.5 mm; blades 2.5-4 cm. |
woody or herbaceous, hollow or solid; often developing complex vegetative branching; leaves distichous, if complex vegetative branching present, leaves of the culms (culm leaves) differing from those of the vegetative branches (foliage leaves); auricles often present; abaxial ligules rarely present on the culm leaves, usually present on the foliage leaves; adaxial ligules membranous or chartaceous, ciliate or not; pseudopetioles sometimes present on the culm leaves, usually present on the foliage leaves; blades usually relatively broad, venation parallel, often with evident cross venation; mesophyll nonradiate; adaxial palisade layer usually absent; fusoid cells usually well developed, large; arm cells usually well developed and highly invaginated; Kranz anatomy not developed; midribs complex or simple; stomates with dome-shaped, triangular, or more rarely parallel-sided subsidiary cells; adaxial bulliform cells present; bicellular microhairs present, terminal cells tapered; papillae common and abundant. |
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Topknots | of 9-12 leaves; blades 20-30 cm long, 1.8-3.2 cm wide, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate. |
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Primary | branches usually 50+ cm, basally erect and distally arcuate, terete, with 3-4 compressed basal internodes, basal nodes developing secondary branches, lower elongated internodes terete in cross section. |
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2n | = unknown. |
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Arundinaria tecta |
Poaceae subfam. bambusoideae |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MD; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA
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Discussion | Arundinaria tecta grows in swampy woods, moist pine barrens, live oak woods, and along the sandy margins of streams, preferring moister sites than A. gigantea. It grows only on the coastal plain of the southeastern United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The Bambusoideae includes two tribes, the woody Bambuseae and the herbaceous Olyreae. Their range includes tropical and temperate regions of Asia, Australia, and the Americas, primarily Central and South America. Three species of Bambuseae are native to the Flora region; there are no native species of Olyreae. Members of the Bambusoideae grow in temperate and tropical forests, high montane grasslands, along riverbanks, and sometimes in savannahs. They are mainly forest understory or margin plants with a limited ability to reproduce, disperse, or survive outside their forest environment. Many have relatively small geographic ranges, and there is a high degree of endemism. The conservation status of most bamboos is not known; all are intrinsically vulnerable because of their breeding behavior and reliance upon a benign forest habitat. Only the C3 photosynthetic pathway is found in the subfamily. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 18. | FNA vol. 24, p. 14. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Bambusoideae > tribe Bambuseae > Arundinaria | Poaceae | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | A. gigantea subsp. tecta | |||||
Name authority | (Walter) Muhl. | Luerss. | ||||
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