Olyra latifolia L.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Poaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Perennial herb; culms 1-6 m tall, 3-12 mm diam., erect or decumbent, climbing and clambering, usually branching from the middle and upper nodes; nodes constricted, dark, pilose to glabrous; internodes glabrous, smooth. Leaf sheaths covered by papillose- pilose hairs or glabrous, auricles to 5 mm long, the lower ones deciduous, the upper persistent; ligules 0.7-5 mm long; pseudopetioles 4-7 mm long; blades 10-32 x 3-11 cm, lanceolate to ovate, obtuse to subcordate at base, acuminate at the apex. Inflorescences borne on peduncles to 15 cm long; panicles 7-20 X 4-14 cm, pyramidal; branches divergent to spreading, the lower ones whorled and bearing staminate spikelets, the upper ones alternate, with staminate spikelets below and 1 to many pistillate spikelets above. Pistillate spikelets 14-22 x 3-4 mm, borne on purplish, clavate pedicels, broadly lanceolate, aristate; glumes 5-9-nerved, sparingly pubescent; lower glume bearing an awn 5-22 mm long; upper glume 10-15 mm long, short-aristate; floret 5-6 mm long, ovate, smooth, shining, apex obtuse. Staminate spikelets 6-8 mm long, greenish to purplish; glumes absent; lemma 3-nerved, scabrous, apex aristate; palea 4-6 mm long. Caryopsis 4-4.5 mm long, ellipsoid.
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Distribution
Occasional in secondary vegetation. Bordeaux (W731), L'Esperance (M17027). Also on St. Thomas and Tortola; throughout the West Indies and Mexico to Argentina; naturalized in Africa.
Africa| Argentina South America| México Mexico North America| West Indies| Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America|