Calyptochloa Hooker's Icon. Pl. 33: 3210 (1933).
Derivation:. From Greek kalyptos (hidden, covered) and chloe (grass), alluding to the hidden nature of the axilliary cleistogamos spikelets.
Taxonomic revisions, nomenclatural references:. C.E.Hubbard, Hookers Icon. Plant. 33: t.3210: 1–6 (1933).
Key references (keys and floras):. J.C.Tothill and J.B.Hacker, Grasses Southern Qld 144–145 (1983); R.D.Webster, Australian Paniceae 17–18 (1987); B.K.Simon, Key to Australian Grasses 82 (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, 177–178 (2008).
W.D.Clayton & S.A.Renvoize, Genera Graminum (1986), genus (471).
Native, endemic. 1 species, from tropical and subtropical Queensland.
Habit. Mat-forming perennial, decumbent. Leaf blades narrow. Ligule a fringe of hairs. Hidden cleistogenes when present in leaf sheaths (borne singly, very modified).
Inflorescence. Inflorescence a single raceme (loose, spike-like), of two types (one a terminal spike-like raceme of 5–8 chasmogmous spikelets, the other axillary and of a single cleistogamous spikelet).
Spikelets. Spikelets dorsally compressed, 2 flowered, with 1 fertile floret, solitary, pedicelled. Fertile spikelets with lower incomplete floret(s), lanceolate or ovate, adaxial (with lower glume against rachis), falling with glumes.
Glumes. Glumes unequal, (the longer) long relative to adjacent lemmas, (the upper) hairy (stiffly pilose dorsally and on the margins), awnless, dissimilar (the lower vestigial, represented by a tiny scale). Lower glume 0 nerved. Upper glume 7 nerved.
Florets. Lower incomplete floret(s) sterile. Lemmas awnless, 7 nerved, hairy, exceeding fertile lemmas, less firm than fertile lemmas to similar in texture to fertile lemmas (chartaceous), not becoming indurated. Fertile florets 1. Lemmas similar in texture to glumes to decidedly firmer than glumes, striate, becoming indurated (slightly), yellow in fruit or brown in fruit, entire at apex, pointed, awned (attenuate into the awn), 3 nerved, glabrous, having flat margins not tucked into palea. Awns 1, apical, non-geniculate, slightly curved, much shorter than body of lemma to about as long as body of lemma. Palea relatively long, entire (pointed), textured like lemma, 2 nerved. Lodicules 2. Stamens 3. Grain small, compressed dorsiventrally. Hilum short. Embryo large.
Kranz Anatomy. C3.
Habitat. Forests. Shade species.
Classification. Panicoideae; Paniceae.
Notes. Probably related to Cleistochloa, though also with resemblance to Alloteropsis (Clayton and Renvoize, 1986).
Types Species. C. gracillima C.E. Hubb.
Biogeographic Element. Clifford & Simon 1981, Simon & Jacobs 1990: Endemic.
