Isachne distichophylla Munro ex Hillebr.

Map

Inflorescence

Plant

Spikelets

Collar

Leaf margin

Description

Perennials; culms stiffly erect, rather stout, + decumbent at base and rooting at lower nodes, nodes often purple, 6-10 dm tall, usually many-branched, especially near base, glabrous. Leaves distichous; sheaths green or often purple, especially at collar, striate, 3-5 cm long, margins densely ciliate with appressed, stout hairs up to 2 mm long; ligule densely ciliate, 1.5-2 mm long; blades spreading, stiff, lanceolate, flat, 5-15 cm long, 5-17 mm wide, or lower ones sometimes vestigial, conspicuously striate, retrorsely scabrous, margins distinctly thickened, cartilaginous, usually irregularly crenate, apex acute, base abruptly rounded. Inflorescences paniculate, often purple, ovoid to ellipsoid, (5-) 10-20 cm long, 4-10 cm wide, branches stiff, terete, usually spreading, glabrous, lower 1/2-1/3 of primary branches without spikelets; spikelets ovoid, 1.5-1.8 mm long; glumes membranous, equal, broadly ovate or suborbicular, slightly shorter to occasionally slightly longer than fertile florets, glabrous or minutely puberulent near apex, indistinctly 7-11-nerved, sometimes sparsely long-hispid or short-hispid, apex acute and slightly beaked; first floret perfect, plano-convex, apex obtuse, second floret pistillate; lemmas indurate, thick, coriaceous, very sparsely to rather conspicuously pubescent at base and along margins, nerveless; palea partially enclosed by and as long as the lemma, minutely puberulent. Caryopsis reddish brown, ovoid, ca. 1 mm long, smooth.
(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 )