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Info
Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus etymology: Calamagrostis = "reed grass" [Greek] refering to the habit of many members
Species etymology: hillebrandii = honorific for William Hillebrand 1821 – 1886
Photosynthetic type: C3 (cool season)
Nativity: endemic
Legal status: Hawaii DLNR - Endangered
Map
Specimen
Description
Perennials with slender, short rhizomes; culms erect, tufted, glabrous, 30-50 cm tall. Sheaths glabrous, longer than internodes, margins tightly overlapping, basal sheaths puberulent; ligule membranous, ca. 1 mm long, erose; blades firm, flat to involute, those of the midculm 10-15 cm long, 2-4 mm wide (when flat), the uppermost reduced, upper surface scabrous, lower surface glabrous or nearly so, apex acute, hard. Inflorescences paniculate, ovate, 5- 15(-30) cm long, 3-7 cm wide, rather loose, the branches ascending to spreading, usually pubescent near base, lower 1/2 of branches without spikelets, rachilla 1.5-2 mm long, silky villous, the hairs extending to tip of lemma, sometimes prolonged into an awn up to 4 mm long; glumes subequal, completely enclosing floret, eventually spreading, 4-6 mm long, apex acuminate and aristate, scabrous; lemma 4-5 mm long, firm, faintly 5-nerved, short-pilose at base, apex hyaline, 4-toothed, the teeth produced into slender awns up to 1 mm long; awn subapical, geniculate, 8-9(-10) mm long, scabrous; palea 3.5-4 mm long, sharply 2-toothed, keels scaberulous, callus laterally pubescent, hairs ca. 0.5 mm long. Caryopsis not seen.
(Description source: O’Connor, P.J. 1990. Poaceae, pp. 1481–1604. In: Wagner W.L., Herbst D.R. & Sohmer S.H. (eds.)., Manual of the flowering plant of Hawaiʻi. Vol. 2. University of Hawaii Press & Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu )