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DANTHONIEAE
- Utah State University Press
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224 DANTHONIOIDEAE rarely with a memb apical flap, glab or ciliate, often with microhairs, smt heavily vascularized; anth 3; ov usu glab, rarely with apical hairs; haustorial synergids present, smt weakly developed; sty 2, bases usu widely separated. Car separate from the lm and pal; hila punctate or long-linear; emb large or small relative to the car; endosperm hard; starch grains usu compound; epiblasts absent; scutellar cleft present; mesocotyl intnd elongated; emb lf mrg usu meeting, smt overlapping. x = 6, 7, 9. The Danthonioideae include only one tribe, the Danthonieae, which used to be included in the Arundinoideae. Conert (1987) placed Cortaderia in a tribe of its own, but its traditional inclusion in the Danthonieae is supported by more recent work (Barker et al. 2000; Grass Phylogeny Working Group 2001, Bouchenak-Khelladi et al. 2008). The combination of haustorial synergids, ciliate ligules, elongated embryo mesocotyls, and C3 photosynthesis distinguishes the Danthonioideae from other subfamilies of the Poaceae. 12. DANTHONIEAE Zotov Mary E. Barkworth See subfamily description. The Danthonieae, the only tribe in the Danthonioideae, include approximately 13 genera and 290 species, most of which grow in mesic to xeric, open habitats such as grasslands, heaths, and open woods. It is most abundant in the Southern Hemisphere. Only Danthonia is native in the Northern Hemisphere. 1. Culms 200–700 cm tall; inflorescences plumose, 30–130 cm long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.01 Cortaderia 1. Culms 2–100 cm tall; inflorescences not plumose, 0.5–12 cm long. 2. Plants perennial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.02 Danthonia 2. Plants annual. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.03 Schismus 12.01 CORTADERIA Stapf Kelly W. Allred Pl per; often dioecious or monoecious; ces. Clm 2–7 m, erect, densely clumped. Lvs primarily bas; shth open, often overlapping, glab or hairy; aur absent; lig of hairs; bld to 2 m, flat to folded, arching, edges usu sharply serrate. Infl tml, plumose pan, 30–130 cm, subtended by a long, ciliate bract; br stiff to flexible. Spklt somewhat lat compressed, usu unisex, smt bisex, with 2–9 unisex flt; dis above the glm and below the flt. Glm unequal, nearly as long as the spklt, hyaline, 1-veined; cal pilose; lm 3–5(7)-veined, long-acuminate, bifid and awned or entire and mucronate; lm of pist and bisex flt usu long-sericeous; lm of stmt flt less hairy or glab; lod 2, cuneate and irregularly lobed, ciliate; pal about½ as long as the lm, 2-veined; anth of bisex flt 3, 1.5–6 mm, those of the pist flt smaller or absent. Car 1.5–3 mm; hila linear, about ½ as long as the car; emb usu shorter than 1 mm. x = 9. Name from the Spanish cortada, ‘cutting’, referring to the sharply serrate blades. Cortaderia, a genus of about 25 species, is native to South America and New Zealand, with the majority of species being South American. Recent evidence suggests that the species in the two regions represent different lineages, each of which merits generic recognition (Barker et al. 2003). The species treated here would remain in Cortaderia if this change were made. One species is grown as an ornamental in the Intermountain Region. 1. Cortaderia selloana (Schult. & Schult. f.) Asch. & Graebn. Pampas Grass [p. 453, 510] Pl usu dioecious, smt monoecious. Clm 2–4 m, usu 2–4 times as long as the pan. Lvs primarily bas; shth mostly glab, with a dense tuft of hairs at the col; lig 1–2 mm; bld to 2 m long, 3–8 cm wide, mostly flat, cauline, ascending, arching, bluish green, abx surfaces glab bas. Pan 30–130 cm, only slightly, if at all, elevated above the foliage, whitish or pinkish when young. Spklt 15–17 mm; cal to 1 mm, with hairs to 2 mm; lm long-attenuate to an awn, awns 2.5–5 mm; pal to 4 mm; stigmas exserted. Car and flt not separating easily from the rchl. 2n = 72. Cortaderia selloana is native to central South America. It is cultivated as an ornamental in the warmer parts of North America. It was thought that it would not become a weed problem because most plants sold as ornamentals are unisexual, but it is now considered an aggressive weed in California and Bendigo, Australia. The weedy Australian plants are bisexual (Walsh 1994). 12.02 DANTHONIA DC. Stephen J. Darbyshire Pl per; ces, smt shortly rhz. Clm 7–130 cm, erect. Shth open to the base, with tufts of hairs at the aur position, smt with a line of hairs around...