| Synonyms: |
Andropogon bipennatus Hack. Sorghastrum bipennatum (Hack.) Pilg. Sorghum bipennatum (Hack.) Kuntze |
| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | |
| Status: | |
| Description: |
Weak annual up to 150 cm high (rarely as much as 200 cm), often decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes and with short stilt roots; culms simple, the nodes shortly pilose; ligule a tough membrane; leaf laminas up to 30 cm × 3–10 mm, linear-lanceolate. Panicle loose, narrowly lanceolate; racemes reduced to a single sessile spikelet, always accompanied by 2 barren pilose pedicels c. 4 mm long. Spikelets 4–5.5 mm long, narrowly ovate, golden, paleate; callus rounded, without a noticeable fringe of hairs; inferior glume ovate, coriaceous, pilose on the back with white hairs; superior glume smooth on the back; inferior floret empty, the lemma hyaline, ciliate along the margins; superior floret bisexual, the lemma bilobed, sometimes inconspicuously so, awned; awn c. 40 mm long, bigeniculate, scabrid along the column, otherwise smooth; anthers not seen. |
| Type location: |
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| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | |
| Habitat: | Wooded grasslands |
| Altitude range: (metres) | 1000 - 1600 m |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Tropical Africa |
| FZ divisions: | N |
| Growth form(s): | |
| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Cope, T.A. (2002). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(4) Pages 28 - 30. (Includes a picture). Jackson, G. & Wiehe, P.O. (1958). An Annotated Check List of Nyasaland Grasses The Government Printer, Zomba, Nyasaland Page 60. As Sorghastrum bipennatum Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 110. Setshogo, M.P. (2000). Notes on the grass subtribe Sorghinae (Poaceae: Andropogoneae) in the Flora Zambesiaca area Kirkia 17(2) Page 137. |