Family: Poaceae |
Kelly W. Allred Plants perennial; often dioecious or monoecious; cespitose. Culms 2-7 m, erect, densely clumped. Leaves primarily basal; sheaths open, often overlapping, glabrous or hairy; auricles absent; ligules of hairs; blades to 2 m, flat to folded, arching, edges usually sharply serrate. Inflorescencesterminal, plumose panicles, 30-130 cm, subtended by a long, ciliate bract; branches stiff to flexible. Spikelets somewhat laterally compressed, usually unisexual, sometimes bisexual, with 2-9 unisexual florets; disarticulation above the glumes and below the florets. Glumes unequal, nearly as long as the spikelets, hyaline, 1-veined; calluses pilose; lemmas 3-5(7)-veined, long-acuminate, bifid and awned or entire and mucronate; lemmas of pistillateand bisexual florets usually long-sericeous; lemmas of staminate florets less hairy or glabrous; lodicules 2, cuneate and irregularly lobed, ciliate; paleas about 1/2 as long as the lemmas, 2-veined; anthers of bisexual florets 3, 1.5-6 mm, those of the pistillate florets smaller or absent. Caryopses1.5-3 mm; hila linear, about 1/2 as long as the caryopses; embryos usually shorter than 1 mm. x = 9. Name from the Spanish, cortada, cutting, referring to the sharply serrate blades. A reference has been added. SELECTED REFERENCES Barker, N.P., C.M. Morton and H.P. Linder. 2000. The Danthonieae: Generic composition and relationships. Pp. 221-229 in S.W.L. Jacobs and J. Everett (eds.). Grasses: Systematics and Evolution. International Symposium on Grass Systematics and Evolution (3rd:1998). CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia. 408 pp.; Connor, H.E. and E. Edgar. 1974. Names and types in Cortaderia Stapf (Gramineae). Taxon 23:595-605; Costas-Lippmann, M. 1977. More on the weedy "pampas grass" in California. Fremontia 4:25-27; Hitchcock, A.S. 1951 [title page 1950]. Manual of the Grasses of the United States, ed. 2, rev. A. Chase. U.S.D.A. Miscellaneous Publication No. 200. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. 1051 pp.; Linder, H.P. and N.P. Barker. 2000. Biogeography of the Danthonieae. Pp. 231-238 in S.W.L. Jacobs and J. Everett (eds.). Grasses: Systematics and Evolution. International Symposium on Grass Systematics and Evolution (3rd:1998). CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia. 408 pp.; Stanton, A.E. and J.M. DiTomaso. 2004. Growth response of Cortaderia selloana and Cortaderia jubata (Poaceae) seedlings to temperature, light, and water. Madroño 51:312-319; Walsh, N.G. 1994. Cortaderia. Pp. 546-548 in N.G. Walsh and T.J. Entwisle. Flora of Victoria, vol. 2: Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons. Inkata Press, Melbourne, Australia. 946 pp. |