Notochloë Domin.
From the Greek notos (south) and chloe (grass), referring to its habitat in the southern hemisphere.
Habit, vegetative morphology. Perennial; caespitose. Culms 30–50 cm high; herbaceous; unbranched above; 3 noded. Culm nodes exposed; glabrous. Young shoots extravaginal. Leaves mostly basal; non-auriculate. Leaf blades linear-lanceolate; narrow; 2–3 mm wide; flat, or rolled (inrolled); without cross venation; a rim of minute papillae; 0.1–1 mm long.
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets. Not viviparous.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence few spikeleted (5–10); paniculate (short); open; with capillary branchlets; espatheate; not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs. Spikelet-bearing axes persistent. Spikelets not secund; pedicellate.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 18–21 mm long; subcylindrical; green; compressed laterally; disarticulating above the glumes; disarticulating between the florets; with conventional internode spacings. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret, or terminated by a female-fertile floret; the rachilla extension (when present) with incomplete florets. Hairy callus present. The callus hairs white. Callus short; blunt.
Glumes present; two; very unequal; shorter than the spikelets; (the longer) shorter than the adjacent lemmas; hairless; glabrous; pointed (acute); awnless; carinate. Lower glume 3 nerved. Upper glume 5 nerved. Spikelets with female-fertile florets only, or with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets distal to the female-fertile florets.
Female-fertile florets 7–14. Lemmas similar in texture to the glumes (thinly leathery); not becoming indurated; incised; 3 lobed; not deeply cleft (shortly 3-toothed); mucronate (the teeth with minute terminal mucros); hairless; glabrous; non-carinate; 5–7 nerved (and ridged). Palea present; relatively long; apically notched; awnless, without apical setae; thinner than the lemma; not indurated; 2-nerved; 2-keeled. Palea back glabrous. Palea keels wingless; scabrous. Lodicules present; 2; free; fleshy; ciliate (sparse), or glabrous; not or scarcely vascularized. Stamens 3. Anthers 2.8–3.5 mm long. Ovary glabrous. Styles free to their bases; free. Style bases adjacent. Stigmas 2.
Fruit, embryo and seedling. Disseminule a caryopsis enclosed in but free of the lemma and palea. Fruit free from both lemma and palea; small; golden-brown; narrowly obovate; compressed dorsiventrally; glabrous; smooth. Hilum long-linear. Pericarp thin; fused. Embryo small (exactly one-third of caryopsis length); waisted.
Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Costal/intercostal zonation conspicuous to lacking. Papillae absent. Long-cells similar in shape costally and intercostally; of similar wall thickness costally and intercostally. Mid-intercostal long-cells fusiform; having markedly sinuous walls. Microhairs present; panicoid-type; (75–)78–99(–111) microns long; (15–)20.4–21.6(–24) microns wide at the septum. Microhair total length/width at septum 3.75–5.1. Microhair apical cells (34.5–)36–42(–60) microns long. Microhair apical cell/total length ratio 0.42–0.54. Stomata absent or very rare; 38.4–43 microns long. Subsidiaries parallel-sided. Guard-cells overlapping to flush with the interstomatals. Intercostal short-cells common; not paired (solitary); not silicified. Costal short-cells neither distinctly grouped into long rows nor predominantly paired. Costal silica bodies tall-and-narrow (a few), or crescentic; not sharp-pointed.
Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. C3; XyMS+. Mesophyll with non-radiate chlorenchyma; without adaxial palisade. Leaf blade ‘nodular’ in section; with the ribs very irregular in sizes. Midrib conspicuous (by virtue of large ‘hinge groups’); with one bundle only. Bulliforms present in discrete, regular adaxial groups; in simple fans (in addition to the large ‘hinges’). All the vascular bundles accompanied by sclerenchyma. Combined sclerenchyma girders present; forming ‘figures’. Sclerenchyma all associated with vascular bundles.
Taxonomy. Arundinoideae; Danthonieae.
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 1 species; Australia. Helophytic; glycophytic (upland swamps).
Australian. North and East Australian. Temperate and South-Eastern Australian.
References, etc. Leaf anatomical: this project.
Special comments. Fruit data wanting.
Illustrations. • Leaf blade transverse section. Notochloe microdon (a panicoid type microhair detectable, lower left)
Cite this publication as: Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. (1992 onwards). ‘Grass Genera of the World: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval; including Synonyms, Morphology, Anatomy, Physiology, Phytochemistry, Cytology, Classification, Pathogens, World and Local Distribution, and References.’ http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/. Version: 18th August 1999. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993 onwards, 1998), and Watson and Dallwitz (1994), and Watson, Dallwitz, and Johnston (1986) should also be cited (see References).
