Bothriochloa ewartiana (Domin) Hubbard

Landge, Shahid Nawaz & Shinde, Rajendra D., 2021, Synopsis of the genus Bothriochloa (Poaceae: Andropogoneae) in India, Phytotaxa 516 (1), pp. 43-58 : 45-47

Bothriochloa ewartiana (Domin) Hubbard (444: 1934).

≡ Andropogon ewartianus Domin (1915: 269) .

Type: — AUSTRALIA, West-Queensland, s.d. [1910], Domin II. s.n. (Barcode: K001057463 , image!) .

Perennial, caespitose, geniculately ascending or straggling, extensively branched, glabrous, leafy herb. Culms terete, slender, basal portion studded with projecting bladeless indurated sheaths. Sheath glabrous, terete, somewhat loose in the upper parts, scarcely keeled or not, shorter than the internodes. Basal internodes somewhat woody, canaliculated on one side, lowest nodes glabrous (hairs caducous); upper nodes bearded with long white hairs. Ligule membranous, ca. 1.2 mm long, obtuse, slightly erose at apex. Blades linear, 5.0–15 (–22) × 0.4–0.6 (–0.7) cm, glabrous, glaucous (green when young, turning reddish later), apices acuminate, distichously arranged (only when young, otherwise not), margin with distinct, white, cartilaginous band; leaves when crushed emanate a distinctively sweet, ± Cymbopogon - like smell. Inflorescence 5.0–9.0 cm long, rhachis 1.4–2.4 cm long, breaking at maturity, racemes 9 sub-digitate, up to 5.0 cm long, first clustered and partly subtended by the upper spatheate sheath, but later exerted on the long peduncle during anthesis. All pairs of spikelets heteromorphic, terminal one in a triad of one sessile and two pedicelled spikelets. At maturity all spikelets disarticulate in pairs. Sessile spikelet 4.5 × 1.0 mm, non-pitted, linear-lanceolate: lower glume of sessile spikelet oblong-lanceolate, ca. 4.0 × 1.0 mm, herbaceous, 9 nerved, 2 keeled, margin sharply inflexed towards the apex and rounded in lower 3/4 portion, longitudinally depressed or concave, hairy below the middle, apex hyaline acute or bidentate; upper glume of sessile spikelet 4.0–5.0 × 1.1 mm, slightly longer than the lower glume, cymbiform, verrucose, 3 nerved, keeled, scabrid in upper 1/3, acute, sometimes mucronulate, margin inflexed ciliate in upper 2/3; lower lemma linear-oblong ca. 3.0 × 0.5 mm, barren, epaleate, acute, hyaline, membranous, nerveless, occasionally tinged with purple in the lower portion, upper 1/3 part ciliate on the margin; upper lemma stipitate, reduced to a hyaline base of a geniculate awn (20–23 mm long), entire, glabrous, whitish, up to 2.0 mm long; column of awn scabrid, brown, twisted ca. 10–11 mm, limb slender scabrid on edges 11–13 mm long in length. Stamens 3. Rhachis 2.8 mm long, laterally compressed with longitudinal, translucent groove in the middle, ciliate on both the angles with long silvery hairs up to 3.0 mm long. Pedicel slender, sub-equal to the rhachis, strap-shaped with median translucent groove, ciliate on the angles with long hair. Pedicelled spikelet 3.0–3.5 × 1.0 mm, very narrow in relation to their sessile counterparts, margins of spikelets in the upper portion of the raceme are somewhat in rolled, empty, shorter than the sessile spikelets: lower glume of pedicelled spikelet linear-lanceolate, narrow, 9–11 nerved, herbaceous, hairy below the middle at least in the lower parts of the raceme whereas in upper parts hairy only on the nerves or completely glabrous, margin sharply inflexed, 2-keeled; upper glume very narrow, almost enclosed by the lower glume, 5 nerved, herbaceous, sub-equal to the lower glume in the lower parts of the raceme and almost becoming half of the length in terminal spikelets, acute, margin inflexed somewhat hairy; lower lemma if present, identical to upper glume, epaleate, hyaline, nerveless, membranous, and empty. Caryopsis, ca. 2.0 × 0.8 mm, obovate–oblong, Plano–convex, tip bimucronate, hilum punctiform, and embryo almost half as long as the caryopsis or little shorter, light brown.

Specimens examined ( Bothriochloa ewartiana ): — INDIA, Andhra Pradesh state, Anantapur district, Gooty Fort Hill , 23 December 2019, Shahid Nawaz GF-01, GF-02, GF-03 ( BLAT) .

Habitat: — Dry quartzite and sandstone rocky crevices in scarce soil accumulation and also on stone walls.

Distribution: — Australia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea ( Lazarides 1970, Clayton et al. 2006, Sumadijaya & Veldkamp 2008, Simon & Alfonso 2011, Sumadijaya 2015) and India (Andhra Pradesh).

Flowering & fruiting period: — December ( India); in Australia throughout the year ( Simon and Alfonso 2011).

Associated species: — Cymbopogon nardus var.confertiflorus ( Steudel1854:385) Bor(1953: 905) , Rhynchelytrum sp. , Chloris virgata Swartz (1797: 203) , Eremopogon foveolatus Stapf (1917: 183) , Chrysopogon fulvus ( Sprengel 1815: 10) Chiovenda (1929: 327) and Chrysopogon velutinus (Hook 1897: 194) Bor (1960: 119) .

(Photography by: Shahid Nawaz)