A Handbook Of Some South Indian Grasses Part 21

_Distribution._--South India and Ceylon.

22. Apocopis, _Nees._

These are annual or perennial gra.s.ses with slender stems. The spikes are compressed, 2- to 3-nate, or solitary at the ends of slender branches, with a rachis not jointed; joints are short, slender and villous.

Spikelets are closely imbricating in two series, sessile, solitary, the upper reduced to a small pedicel 1- to 2-flowered, the lowest few on the spike, imperfect, male or neuter. There are four glumes. The first glume is large, broadly obovate or obcordate, cuneate, villous with brown hairs, 7- to 9-nerved. The second glume is as long as the first, but narrower, thinner, oblong to ovate, spikelet truncate and 3-nerved. The third glume is hyaline, narrow, paleate, male or empty. The fourth glume is hyaline, linear, entire or 2-fid, awned, bis.e.xual with a very short palea. Lodicules are absent. Stamens are two or three with linear anthers. Styles are short and stigmas slender and exserted. The grain is small, oblong and narrow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 139.--Apocopis Wightii.]

=Apocopis Wightii, _Nees ex Steud._=

This is a low and densely tufted or tall erect annual gra.s.s. Stems are leafy, branching freely, 3 to 8 inches long.

The _leaf-sheath_ is loose, usually hairy, rarely also glabrous and hairy at the mouth. The _ligule_ is a small lacerate membrane.

The _leaf-blade_ is linear-lanceolate, ac.u.minate, hairy on both sides and with tubercle-based hairs, rarely glabrous, 3/4 to 3 inches by 1/12 to 1/8 inch.

The _inflorescence_ consists of two racemes, closely appressed together on a very slender peduncle; the joints are shorter than the spikelets and with long brown hairs.

The _spikelets_ are oblong, 1/8 to 1/5 inch long, the callus is short, hairy with long brown hairs. The _first glume_ is cuneately obovate or obcordate, yellowish with red brown tips or dark brown with yellow tips, chartaceous below, membranous, hyaline and ciliate at the truncate, emarginate or retuse apex, 7- to 9-nerved, the nerves abruptly ceasing towards the apex. The _second glume_ is as long as the first, broadly oblong, sides sharply folded inwards, 3-nerved, rarely nerveless, with long hairs at the back towards the base and with short cilia at the apex. The _third glume_ is as long as the first, hyaline, thin, linear-oblong, nerveless, ciliate at the apex, paleate, usually with two stamens or empty; _palea_ as long as the glume, hyaline and nerveless.

The _fourth glume_ is slightly longer than the other glumes or equal, very narrowly oblong or linear, membranous, awned and paleate; _awn_ is 2 to 6 times the length of the glume, 7/8 to 1-1/4 inch long; _palea_ is hyaline, thin, nerveless, convolute, broadly oblong to almost quadrate oblong, apex with very short cilia. Grain is minute and oblong.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 140.--Apocopis Wightii.

1. Spike; 2. a spikelet; 3, 4, 5 and 7. the first, second, third and the fourth glume, respectively; 6 and 8. palea of the third and the fourth glume; 9. ovary.]

This gra.s.s varies very much in its spikelets. In one form they are smaller and hairy and in the other they are larger and glabrous except for a few stray hairs here and there. The former one is more widely distributed and the latter seems to be confined to certain localities in the south of the Presidency.

_Distribution._--Throughout the Deccan Peninsula, Behar, Central India, Burma and Ceylon.

23. Lophopogon, _Hack._

These are small densely tufted perennial gra.s.ses, with very narrow leaves. The spikes are very short at the ends of very fine branches, solitary, binate or fascicled, with very fragile rachis; joints are very short, slender with cupular tips. The spikelets are binate one sessile and the other shortly pedicelled, with the callus villous. There are four glumes. The first glume (of both the sessile and the pedicelled spikelets) is oblong, truncate, irregularly 3- to 4-toothed, 5- to 7-nerved and dorsally convex. The second glume is narrow lanceolate, longer than the first, 3- to 5-nerved, hispidly villous dorsally below the middle and on the sides, aristate or awned. The third glume is oblong lanceolate, hyaline, acute or aristate, 1-nerved, male or neuter, with a linear palea. The fourth glume is hyaline, as long as the third, entire or 2-fid and awned in the pedicelled and not awned in sessile spikelets, paleate with female or bis.e.xual flowers. Lodicules are not present. Stamens are two. Stigmas are long.

=Lophopogon tridentatus, _Hack._=

This is a small annual gra.s.s with slender, tufted, erect stems varying in height from 4 to 12 inches.

_Leaf-sheaths_ are glabrous or with scattered hairs. The _ligule_ is a fringe of close-set long hairs. _Nodes_ are covered with long hairs below, but nodes nearer the inflorescence are glabrous.

_Leaf-blades_ are very finely linear, ac.u.minate, rigid, erect, glabrous below, with long hairs on the upper surface to about quarter the length of the blade and densely hairy near the mouth, and varying in length from 2 to 6 inches.

The _inflorescence_ consists of usually two closely appressed spikes, though appearing as one, 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, pilose with ferrugineous hairs; the peduncle is capillary and enclosed by the upper leaf-sheath.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 141.--Lophopogon tridentatus.

1. Awnless lower spikelet; 2. a lower sessile and an upper pedicelled spikelet; 3. the first glume of an awnless lower spikelet; 4. the first glume of a lower spikelet that is awned; 5. the first, glume of the upper or pedicelled spikelets; 6, 7 and 9. the second, third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the upper pedicelled spikelets; 8 and 10.

palea of the third and the fourth glumes; 11. ovary and anthers.]

The _spikelets_ are densely imbricate, binate at each joint, the upper being shortly pedicelled and the lower sessile or subsessile. The _lower spikelets_ are 1/5 inch long with a tuft of brownish hairs at the tip of the callus. The _lower spikelets_ at the very base of the inflorescence are awnless and contain only two male flowers, whereas those above in the inflorescence are awned and contain one male flower and one hermaphrodite or female flower.

There are four _glumes_ in the spikelet. The _first glume_ in the awnless spikelets is coriaceous, oblong, cuneate, very spa.r.s.ely hairy or glabrous, shorter than the second glume, 7-nerved, 5-toothed at the apex, two teeth being broader and shorter and three sharper and longer.

The _second glume_ is longer than the first, 1/5 inch long, sub-chartaceous, lanceolate, 3-nerved, 2-fid at the tip and awned or aristate, margin hyaline and with long brownish hairs on the marginal nerves. The _third glume_ is hyaline, a little shorter than the second, lanceolate-linear, tip bifid or irregularly toothed, paleate with two stamens or rarely empty; the _palea_ is linear, about as long as the glume, tip irregularly toothed. The _fourth glume_ is hyaline, as long as the third glume, 2-fid at the tip, awnless with a very minute arista in the cleft or not, paleate with two stamens; _palea_ narrow and hyaline. The _first glume_ of the lower spikelets above is somewhat narrower, 5- or 3-toothed with long hairs at the margins and with tufts of hairs at the back about the middle. The pedicelled or upper spikelets also have four _glumes_ and bear one male flower and one bis.e.xual flower. The _first glume_ is shorter than the second glume, narrow, oblong, cuneate, 3-toothed with marginal hairs and tufts of hairs at about the middle at the back, 7-nerved all nerves running straight. The _second glume_ is longer than the first, 1/5 inch long, sub-chartaceous, lanceolate, 2-fid at the tip, awned with hyaline margins, 3- to 7-nerved, marginal nerves with long brown hairs, and also with two tufts of hairs at about the middle or without it. The _third glume_ is hyaline, nerveless, linear-lanceolate, shorter than the second glume, tip irregularly toothed or unequally bifid, paleate with two stamens; _palea_ is linear about as long as the glume. The _fourth glume_ is hyaline, about 1/6 inch long, lanceolate, 2-fid at the tip, awned in the cleft, lobes are hairy; _awn_ is 3/4 inch long, paleate, usually bis.e.xual, rarely female; _palea_ is two-thirds of the glume in height, broadly ovate or quadrate, lobulate at the apex. _Styles_ are very long, purple, _anthers_ long, yellow. Grain narrow ellipsoidal or cylindric as long as the palea.

This gra.s.s is found in Chingleput, Nellore and Chittoor districts in open waste places in loamy soils.

_Distribution._--The Konkan, Kanara and Central Provinces.

24. Apluda, _L._

These are tall leafy slender perennial gra.s.ses, with branching stems erect or geniculately ascending from a creeping or dec.u.mbent base. The inflorescence is a leafy panicle of many small spikes enclosed in spathiform bracts. Spikes are of one linear joint gibbously bulbous at the base, and jointed on the peduncle at the base of the spathe by a minute curved pedicel. Spikelets are three, a sessile, 2-flowered bis.e.xual one in front, and two pedicelled ones behind, one of which is imperfect and reduced to a glume and the other perfect male or rarely bis.e.xual. The two pedicels are flat, prolonged from one side of the rounded rachis, oblong linear, truncate with a few long hairs along the margin. Sessile spikelets have four glumes. The first glume is chartaceous, linear oblong, many-nerved, shortly bifid at the apex, longer than the other glumes. The second glume is thinner, dorsally gibbous, keeled, 5- to 9-nerved, beaked and minutely bifid. The third glume is hyaline, oblong, acute, 3-nerved, paleate and male. The fourth glume is hyaline, deeply bifid, awned in the sinus, bis.e.xual with a minute palea. The pedicelled spikelet has also four glumes. The first and the second glumes are nearly equal, rather chartaceous.

linear-oblong, acute or ac.u.minate, many-nerved. The third glume is hyaline, oblong-lanceolate, 3-nerved, paleate and male. The fourth glume is hyaline, bifid, paleate, 1-nerved, female or bis.e.xual. Lodicules are two. Stamens are three. Grain is oblong.

=Apluda varia, _Hack._=

This is a tall leafy perennial gra.s.s with wiry roots. Stems are densely tufted, branched, geniculately ascending, erect or the branches scandent, solid, smooth and polished, 1 to 7 feet.

The _leaf-sheath_ is glabrous or slightly hairy, the upper ones being shorter and dilated into spathes with subulate tips. The _ligule_ is a short stiff slightly lacerate membrane.

The _leaf-blade_ is linear-lanceolate, finely ac.u.minate, base narrowed into a petiole, scaberulous on both the surfaces.

The _inflorescence_ consists of simple spikes, each in a spathiform bract, and forming cl.u.s.ters terminating the stem and the branches. The _spikes_ have their bases rounded and swollen and each spike consists of a sessile bis.e.xual spikelet and two flat linear, truncate, parallel pedicels, one terminated by a spikelet, and the other by a solitary minute glume. Spathes are 1/8 to 1/3 inch long, sessile or pedicellate, green, cymbiform, with subulate tips.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 142.--Apluda varia.

A. A cl.u.s.ter of spikes containing five spikes with their spathes; B and C. spikes.]

The _sessile_ as well as the _pedicelled spikelets_ have four _glumes_.

The _sessile spikelets_ are 1/8 to 1/5 inch long. The _first glume_ is spreading or erect, chartaceous, many-nerved, two-toothed at the apex and with narrow hyaline margins from about the middle to the apex. The _second glume_ is compressed, dorsally gibbous, keeled, 7-nerved. The _third glume_ is hyaline, oblong-lanceolate, 3-nerved, paleate with three stamens; _palea_ is narrow. The _fourth glume_ is shorter than the third, deeply 2-fid and awned in the cleft, bis.e.xual or female, 3- to 5-nerved below the cleft, the lateral nerves arching and meeting the mid-nerve just at the cleft, with a small ovate palea. There are two _lodicules_. The _pedicelled spikelets_ are dorsally compressed. The _first glume_ is lanceolate, oblong, subacute, many-nerved, coriaceous and glabrous. The _second glume_ is as long as the first, many-nerved, lanceolate-oblong, coriaceous and glabrous. The _third glume_ is hyaline, shorter than the second, 3-nerved, paleate and with three stamens. The _fourth glume_ is shorter than or equal to the third, hyaline, 1-nerved rarely with two short lateral nerves, female or imperfect. _Lodicules_ are two.

A very common gra.s.s occurring in the plains and lower hills, all over the Presidency and grows well in all kinds of soil.

_Distribution._--All over India.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 143.--Apluda varia.

1, 2, 3 and 4. The first, second, third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the sessile spikelet; 3a and 4a. are the palea of the third and the fourth glume, respectively; 5. stamens, ovary and lodicules; 6, 7, 8 and 10. the first, second, third and the fourth glume, respectively, of the pedicelled spikelet; 9 and 11. palea of the third and the fourth glumes.]