Fingerhuthia africana
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02 Apr 2015
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Full name: | Fingerhuthia africana Lehm. |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Vingerhoedgras |
| English common name(s): | Thimble grass, Zulu fescue |
| Synonym(s): | Fingerhuthia capensis Nees fide Fl. Cap. Fingerhuthia ciliata Nees fide Fl. Cap. |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Densely tufted, glabrous; culms slender, about 1 ft. long, erect, simple, smooth, 2-noded, internodes exserted; sheaths glabrous, smooth, tight, the lower short, firm, whitish, persistent; blades linear, acute, 3–6 in. by 1–2 lin., flat or usually convolute, smooth below, finely scaberulous above, striate; panicle ellipsoid to cylindric, 0.5–1.5 in. by 4–6 lin., sometimes purplish; spikelets 2–2.5 lin. long, 2–4-flowered; glumes linear-lanceolate in profile, 1.5–2 lin. long, long and softly ciliate along the keel and upper margins; awn fine, 1–1.5 lin. long; valves ovate-lanceolate in profile, abruptly mucronate, 2 lin. long, rather firm except at the hyaline margin and obtuse tip, grooved below parallel to the keel, finely hairy near the margin below the middle, 7–9-nerved, side-nerves conniving and joining the middle nerve below the tip, the inner evanescent below, the middle one excurrent into a mucro; lodicules narrow, cuneate, 0.125 lin. long; anthers 1–1.25 lin. long; styles 0.25 lin. long; stigmas 1 lin. long. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) Densely caespitose perennial, often with stout oblique rhizome, up to 60(90) cm tall, usually erect; leaf lamina (3)7.5–30(40) cm x 2–5(7) mm, flat or convolute. Panicle 1.5–5 cm long, cylindrical or narrowly ellipsoid, green or tinged with purple. Spikelets 4–7(9) mm long; glumes as long as the spikelet, the superior a little longer than the inferior, lanceolate in profile, the keel and (to a lesser extent) the margins with soft silky hairs, the flanks smooth or asperulous, with an awn 1.7–3.5 mm long; fertile lemma (4)4.5–6.9 mm long, ovate-lanceolate in profile, softly ciliate on the margins, scaberulous on the back, mucronate or shortly awned at the rounded apex. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
