Arundinella Raddi,. Agrost. Bras. 36
(1823).
Derivation:.
The diminutive of Latin arundo (reed), alluding to the resemblance to a
thin reed.
Taxonomic
revisions, nomenclatural references:. B.K.Simon, Austrobaileya 1:
463–465 (1982).
Key references
(keys and floras):. G.Bentham, Flora Australiensis 7: 544–545
(1878); C.A.Gardner, Flora of Western Australia 1 Gramineae
222–224 (1952); E.E.Henty, Manual Grasses New Guinea 32 (1969);
J.W.Vickery, Flora of New South Wales, Gramineae 19: 271–273 (1975);
M.Lazarides, Tropical Grasses S.E. Asia 81–83 (1980); J.C.Tothill and
J.B.Hacker, Grasses of Southern Queensland 114–115 (1983);
T.D.Macfarlane, Flora of the Kimberley Region 1127 (1992); B.K.Simon, Key
to Australian Grasses 73 (1993); S.W.L.Jacobs and S.M.Hastings, Flora of
New South Wales 4: 505 (1993); D.Sharp and B.K.Simon, AusGrass (2002);
S.W.L.Jacobs, R.D.B.Whalley & D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses of New South Wales,
4th Ed, 134–135 (2008).
W.D.Clayton &
S.A.Renvoize, Genera Graminum (1986), genus (557).
Native. 55 species,
from warm regions. 4 species in Australia, WA, NT, Qld, and NSW. Also New
Guinea.
Habit. Annual
or perennial, rhizomatous (mostly with tough, erect culms). Leaf blades narrow.
Ligule a fringed membrane (narrow).
Inflorescence.
Inflorescence paniculate, an open panicle with branches ending in single
spikelets, open or contracted.
Spikelets. Spikelets
laterally compressed, 2 flowered, with 1 fertile floret, awned, solitary or
paired, pedicelled. Fertile spikelets with lower incomplete floret(s),
disarticulating above glumes.
Glumes. Glumes
unequal, (the upper) long relative to adjacent lemmas, pointed, awned or
awnless, dissimilar to similar (membranous to papery, l.g. acute to mucronate,
u.g. often caudate). Lower glume 3 nerved. Upper glume 5 nerved.
Florets. Lower
incomplete floret(s) male. Lemmas awnless, 3–7 nerved, less firm than fertile
lemmas to similar in texture to fertile lemmas, not becoming indurated. Fertile
florets 1. Lemmas similar in texture to glumes to decidedly firmer than glumes
(membranous to thinly leathery), not becoming indurated, entire at apex or
incised, when entire pointed or blunt, muticous or awned, with a clear
germination flap, 1–7 nerved, glabrous (scabrid or scabridulous). Awns 1, from
a sinus, geniculate, hairless, much shorter than body of lemma to much longer
than body of lemma, persistent. Palea entire (narrow), 2 nerved, glabrous
(rarely papillose between keels). Palea keels wingless (the margins sometimes
auriculate below). Callus short, blunt. Lodicules 2. Stamens 3. Grain small,
compressed dorsiventrally or terete. Hilum short. Embryo large.
Kranz Anatomy. C4
or C3 (rarely in Africa), biochemical type NADP-ME (A. nepalensis).
2n = 14,
20, 28, 36, and 56, commonly adventive.
Habitat.
Helophytic to mesophytic. Marshy places, riverbanks and rocky slopes. Species
of open habitats.
Classification.
Panicoideae; Arundinelleae.
Notes. A
homogeneous genus, somewhat isolated from the rest of the tribe Arundinelleae
(Clayton and Renvoize, 1986). Arundinelleae as a tribe is polyphyletic; Arundinella
can be accommodated within Andropogoneae (Kellogg, pers.com. 2000).
Types Species. A.
brasiliensis Raddi.
Biogeographic
Element. Clifford & Simon 1981, Simon & Jacobs 1990: Gondwanan.
