G.612. Hyparrhenia Fourn. - Thatching-grasses

Clayton, W.D. (1969) A Revision of the Genus Hyparrhenia. Kew Bull. Addit. Ser. 2. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Description of the genus

Annuals or perennials. Leaves never aromatic. Inflorescence composed of paired racemes, each pair borne on a common peduncle and subtended by a sheathing spatheole, these crowded together into a large leafy false panicle. Racemes borne on a stalk (raceme-base) which may be deflexed at maturity; each raceme with up to 2 of the lowermost pairs male or barren, awnless and tardily deciduous (homogamous pairs). Rhachis internodes and pedicels linear. Sessile spikelet dorsally flattened or terete; callus obtuse to pungent, applied obliquely to the apex of the internode; lower glume coriaceous, broadly convex across the back; upper glume awnless; lower floret reduced to a hyaline lemma; upper lemma 2-dentate bearing an awn between the teeth. Pedicellate spikelet male or barren, usually a little longer than the sessile spikelet, awnless or with a minute arista from the lower glume.

Worldwide: c. 55 species, mainly African but with a few extending to other tropical or warm-temperate regions

Botswana: 10 taxa.

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Links to taxa:     View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesFZ divisionsContent
anamesa ClaytonSEDescription
dichroa (Steud.) StapfNDescription
filipendula (Hochst.) StapfN,SEDescription
hirta (L.) StapfN,SEDescription
nyassae (Rendle) StapfNDescription
poecilotricha (Hack.) StapfDescription
rudis StapfDescription
rufa (Nees) StapfN,SEDescription
tamba (Hochst. ex Steud.) Andersson ex StapfDescription
welwitschii (Rendle) StapfDescription

Other sources of information about Hyparrhenia:

Our websites:

Flora of Caprivi: Hyparrhenia
Flora of Caprivi: cultivated Hyparrhenia
Flora of Malawi: Hyparrhenia
Flora of Mozambique: Hyparrhenia
Flora of Zambia: Hyparrhenia
Flora of Zimbabwe: Hyparrhenia

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Hyparrhenia
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Hyparrhenia
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Hyparrhenia
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Hyparrhenia
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Hyparrhenia
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Hyparrhenia
JSTOR Plant Science: Hyparrhenia
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Hyparrhenia
Plants of the World Online: Hyparrhenia
Tropicos: Hyparrhenia
Wikipedia: Hyparrhenia

Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave, 2014-24

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2024). Flora of Botswana: Genus page: Hyparrhenia.
https://www.botswanaflora.com/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=246, retrieved 19 March 2024

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