Oplismenus hirtellus |
Oplismenus |
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bamboo grass, basketgrass, bristle basketgrass |
basketgrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial. | Plants annual or perennial. | ||||||||
Culms | to 90 cm, mostly decumbent and rooting at the nodes, distal 15-35 cm ascending when flowering; nodes usually pubescent; internodes usually pubescent along 1 side (sometimes glabrous). |
10-100 cm, weak, trailing on the ground, branching. |
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Sheaths | conspicuously ciliate on the margins; ligules 0.4-1.6(2.3) mm, ciliate; blades (0.6)1.3-11.5 cm long, 2-20 mm wide, glabrous, scabrous, or pubescent, margin(s) usually undu-lating. |
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Leaves | cauline; ligules membranous and ciliate, or of hairs; blades lanceolate. |
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Panicles | (1.5)2.5-16.5 cm, with 2-10 primary branches; branches 0.1-2.5 cm. |
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Inflorescences | terminal, panicles of unilateral branches, spikelets paired (but the first spikelet sometimes reduced), rachises and branches terminating in a spikelet; branches 0.1-7 cm, persistent; disarticulation below the glumes. |
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Spikelets | 2.2-3.5(4.5) mm; calluses shortly pubescent at the base awns usually purplish. |
dorsally compressed, not sunken into the rachis, lacking subtending bristles, with 2 florets. |
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Lower glumes | 1.5-3 mm, scabridulous and/or pubescent, 3-5-veined, awns (1.6)3.2-14.5 mm; upper glumes 1.5-2.5 mm, sparsely pubescent, 5-7-veined, awns 0.8-6(10) mm; lower florets usually sterile, occasionally staminate; lower lemmas 2.2-3.1 mm, sparsely pubescent above, (5)7-9-veined, awns 0.1-1.2 mm; lower paleas absent or to 2.3 mm, hyaline; upper lemmas (2.1)2.3-3 mm, glabrous, weakly cartilaginous, white to cream-colored; anthers 3, 1.3-1.7 mm. |
awned; upper glumes not ciliate on the margins, unawned or with awns shorter than those of the lower glumes, awns of both glumes often becoming viscid; lower florets sterile or staminate; lower lemmas acute to shortly awned; lower paleas present or absent; upper florets bisexual; upper lemmas papery to leathery, glabrous, smooth, unawned, white or yellow at maturity; upper paleas similar to the upper lemmas, x = 9. |
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Caryopses | 1.7-1.8 mm long, 0.5-0.9 mm wide, glabrous. |
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2n | = 36, (54), 72, (90). |
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Oplismenus hirtellus |
Oplismenus |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TX; VA; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
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AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TX; VA; HI; PR; Virgin Islands |
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Discussion | Oplismenus hirtellus grows at scattered locations in the southeastern United States, extending south in subtropical and tropical habitats to Argentina. Scholz (1981) recognized 11 subspecies and two forms within the species, but they overlap, both morphologically and geographically. The key below is included for convenience. It includes the three subspecies attributed to the Flora region. In addition, a variegated form culti (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Oplismenus is a genus of five closely related species that grow in shady, mesic forests of tropical and subtropical regions. One species is native to the Flora region. The awns of most species become viscid at maturity, aiding in fruit dispersal (Davidse 1987). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 390. | FNA vol. 25, p. 389. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Oplismenus | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae | ||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | O. hirtellus subsp. setarius, O. hirtellus subsp. fasciculatus | |||||||||
Name authority | (L.) P. Beauv. | P. Beauv. | ||||||||
Web links |