Cortaderia Stapf, Gard. Chron. ser. 3. 22: 378 (1897)

Testoni, Daniel & Linder, H. Peter, 2017, Synoptic taxonomy of Cortaderia Stapf (Danthonioideae, Poaceae), PhytoKeys 76, pp. 39-69 : 42-43

Cortaderia Stapf, Gard. Chron. ser. 3. 22: 378 (1897) nom. cons.

Cortaderia Stapf, Gard. Chron. ser. 3. 22: 378 (1897) nom. cons. Type species: Cortaderia selloana (Schult.) Asch. & Graebn. (Syn. Mitteleur. Fl. 2(1): 325. 1900) (Basionym Arundo selloana Schult.).

Moorea Lem., Ill. Hort. 2: Misc. 14 (1855) nom. rej., non Rolfe (1890). Type species: Moorea argentea (Nees) Lem. ( Cortaderia selloana ).

Lamprothyrsus Pilg., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 37 (Beibl. 85): 58 (1906). Type species: Lamprothyrsus hieronymi (Kuntze) Pilg. (Basionym Triraphis hieronymi Kuntze).

Description.

Gynodioecious, dioecious, hermaphrodite or apomictic perennials, ranging from rounded vegetable hedgehogs less than 0.5 m tall to erect 4 m tall tussocks; innovations intravaginal; spreading stolons rare. Leaf sheaths variable: persisting intact, or fragmenting transversely, or decaying into a tangled mass of fibres, or occasionally persisting as burnt-off sheaths; glabrous or more rarely covered in a dense indumentum. Ligule of one or many rows of cilia, to 5 mm long. Leaf blades to 2 m long, tough, expanded, rolled or folded, occasionally pungent, usually persistent but occasionally disarticulating above the ligule, sometimes with an adaxial weft of hairs directly above the ligule; margins sometimes roughly scabrid and cutting. Inflorescences paniculate, sometimes compact but usually plumose, to 1 m long, many-spikeleted, pedicels and pulvini glabrous, scabrid or villous. Spikelets to 30 mm long, with 2-10 florets, disarticulating above the glumes, male spikelets usually less hairy than female spikelets and glabrous in the Selloana group; glumes glabrous, often papery or membranous, 4-30 mm long, usually 1-veined and rarely with no veins, upper and lower glumes similar. Lemmas (Fig. 1 ) 3-7 nerved, mostly with the central three nerves continuing into a more or less twisted awn; the lateral nerves sometimes terminating in lateral bristles, the lemmas often continuing up the awns, consequently with the bristles apparently borne on the awn, in Cortaderia selloana the lemma continues to the tip of the awn and so obscures the awn; lemmas usually long-villous on the back, rarely glabrous. Palea membranous, linear, often longer than the lemma, keeled, sometimes variously villous on the back. Lodicules two. Anthers three, fertile or sterile, to 3.5 mm long. Ovary stalked, styles two. Caryopses 1.5-3.5 mm long, variable in shape, glabrous, embryo mark from ¼ to more than ½ length of caryopsis, hilum linear, from ¼ to ¾ caryopsis length.

Leaf anatomy.

Leaf in transverse section sclerophyllous, leaves varying from expanded to setaceous, margins not thickened but with a sclerenchyma cap. Adaxial furrows vary from deep and cleft-like to absent; abaxial ribs sometimes present. Vascular bundles differentiated into two, rarely three, orders; primary vascular bundles 6-30, symmetrically distributed in the two leaf sections; either ad- or abaxially or centrally positioned, circular or elliptical, sometimes with sclerosed phloem; outer bundle sheath cells always distinct from the chlorenchyma and sometimes lignified, entire or interrupted by bundle sheath; adaxial sclerenchyma as narrow girders, as trapezoidal girders, as T-shaped girders or inversely anchor-shaped girders; abaxial sclerenchyma as small strands, as narrow girders, as wide girders, as trapezoidal girders, or as massive linked girders forming a continuous subepidermal layer; tertiary vascular bundles 1-several between the primary vascular bundles, adaxial sclerenchyma as small strands, as narrow girders, as trapezoid girders narrowing towards vascular bundles, as T-shaped girders or inversely anchor-shaped girders; abaxial sclerenchyma absent, as small strands, as narrow girders, as broad girders, as trapezoidal girders or as massive linked girders forming a continuous subepidermal layer. Mesophyll of small, angular isodiametric chlorenchyma cells with small air spaces; mesophyll islands of colourless cells usually absent, sometimes with colourless collenchyma cells connecting the adaxial and abaxial furrows and so partitioning the chlorenchyma. Abaxial subepidermal layer sometimes with collenchymatous or non-chlorophyllous cells in 1-several layers only along the margins, or flanking the midrib, and sometimes with this layer extending over the whole width of the leaf. Abaxial epidermal zonation present or absent; microhairs or macrohairs absent; silica bodies absent, or tall and narrow, or round and single. Adaxial epidermis sometimes with papillae, prickle-hairs, and microhairs.

Distribution and ecology.

Widespread in South America, from Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) to Venezuela, from Brazil to Peru, from sea level to the Páramo.

Figures

Figure 1. Lemmas of selected species of Cortaderia. A Cortaderia selloana, Juergens 40 (B) B Cortaderia araucana, Borchers s. n. (US) C Cortaderia speciosa, P. M. Peterson 12766 (US) D Cortaderia vaginata, L. B. Smith, P. R. Reitz & R. Klein 7761 (B) E Cortaderia egmontiana, P. M. Peterson, R. J. Soreng & N. Refulio-Rodriguez 17508 (US) F Cortaderia modesta, A. Chase 8288 (US) G Cortaderia hieronymi, A. Burkart et al. 30395 (P) - note that awn and setae are much longer than illustrated H Cortaderia nitida, S. Laegaard 52786 (K) I Cortaderia sericantha, E. Asplund 17175 (B) J Cortaderia bifida, D. N. Smith & J. Cabanillas 7167 (US) K Cortaderia hapalotricha, J. C. Solomon & R. Chevalier 16620 L Cortaderia columbiana, J. P. Schulz 318 (US). All at same magnification.