Family: Poaceae |
J.K. Wipff and Rahmona A. Thompson Plants annual. Culms 10-60 cm, herbaceous, not woody, often creeping. Leaves cauline; sheaths open, glabrous or pubescent; ligules membranous, with a ciliate fringe, fringe longer than the membranous base. Inflorescences terminal, secund panicles of 1-sided branches; branches erect to ascending, axes triquetrous, terminating in a well-developed spikelet; secondary branches, when present, shorter than the primary branches; disarticulation below the glumes and beneath the upper florets. Spikelets solitary, subsessile, dorsally compressed, unequally convex, in 2 rows, the lower glumes and lemmas appressed or adjacent to the branch axes, with 2 florets; lower florets sterile or staminate; upper florets stipitate, bisexual, usually glabrous, readily disarticulating, acuminate. Lower glumes to 0.5 mm, less than 1/2 as long as the spikelets, glabrous, adjacent to the branch axes, 0-1-veined; upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal, villous, 3-5-veined; upper glumes subequal to or slightly exceeding the upper florets, not saccate; lower paleas present; anthers (if present) 3; upper lemmas equaling the second glume, glabrous, indurate, smooth, shiny to lustrous, 5- or 7-veined, margins involute, apices round to muticous; upper paleas similar to the upper lemmas; anthers 3. Caryopses ovoid, dorsally compressed. x = 9. Name from the Greek mooros, fool, and chloa, grass. SELECTED REFERENCES Brummit, R.K. 1998. Report of the Committee for Spermatophyta: 47. Taxon 47:869-870; Morrone, O. and F.O. Zuloaga. 1992. Revisión de las especies Sudamericanas nativas e introducisas de los géneros Brachiaria y Urochloa (Poaceae: Panicoideae: Paniceae). Darwiniana 31:43-109; Pfeiffer, L.G. 1871-1873. Nomenclator Botanicus, vol. 1. Theodor Fisher, Kassel, Germany; Veldkamp, J.F. 2004. Miscellaneous notes on mainly southeast Asian Gramineae. Reinwardtia 12:135-140. Plants annual. Leaves: ligules with membranous base and ciliate upper margin, cilia longer than the basal membranes. Inflorescences terminal, panicles of 1-sided branches; branches erect to ascending, axes 3-angled, each terminating in a well-developed spikelet; secondary branches, if present, shorter than the primary branches. Spikelets solitary, subsessile, dorsally compressed, unequally biconvex, in 2 rows, with 2 florets; lower glumes less than 1/2 as long as the spikelets, glabrous, 0-1-veined; upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal to each other, equaling or slightly exceeding the upper florets, villous, 3-5-veined; lower florets sterile or staminate; lower paleas present; upper florets stipitate, bisexual, usually glabrous, readily disarticulating, acuminate; upper lemmas equaling the second glume, glabrous, indurate, backs rounded, smooth, shiny to lustrous, 5- or 7-veined, margins involute, apices round to muticous; upper paleas similar to the upper lemmas; anthers 3. Caryopses ovoid, dorsally compressed. Moorochloa includes three species. It was not described until 2004. In the Flora of Somalia, which was published in 1995, it was included in Brachiaria. One species of Moorochloa, Moorochloa eruciformis, grows as a weed in Somalia. No species of Moorochloa has been collected in Somaliland. |