Koeleria glomerata Kunth

synonyms: Trisetum glomeratum


pili uka, he'upueo [Hawai'i], mountain pili


Info

Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus etymology: Koeleria = honorific for Georg Ludwig Koeler (1765–1807)
Species etymology: glomerata = "ball of thread" [Latin] refering to the spikelets being clustered together
Photosynthetic type: C3 (cool season)
Nativity: endemic

Map

 Distribution of Koeleria glomerata in Hawaiʻi.
 Distribution of Koeleria glomerata in Hawaiʻi.

Inflorescence

Koeleria glomerata Inflorescence
Koeleria glomerata Inflorescence
Koeleria glomerata Inflorescence

Plant

Koeleria glomerata Plant
Koeleria glomerata Plant
Koeleria glomerata Plant

Habit

Koeleria glomerata Habit

Spikelets

Koeleria glomerata Spikelets
Koeleria glomerata Spikelets

Description

Perennials; culms densely tufted, 4-9 dm tall, erect, robust, glabrous or pubescent. Sheaths 4-12 cm long, usually loosely clasping the culm, especially the lower ones, glabrous to soft pubescent; ligule 3-5 mm long, membranous, usually lacerate; blades coriaceous, flat, or usually involute toward the stiff, subulate apex, 10-25 cm long, 2-4(-6) mm wide, glabrous or pubescent. Panicles erect, spike-like, sometimes interrupted or rather loose, 12-20 cm long, ca. 1 cm in diameter; spikelets 2-3-flowered, 4-6 mm long, compressed, scabrous to villous; glumes ca. 5 mm long, apex acuminate, first glume narrow, 0.7-1 mm wide from keel to margin, second glume twice as wide as first glume; lemmas 4-5 mm long, indistinctly 5-nerved, rather firm, somewhat keeled, usually dorsally awned from below the entire or slightly bifid apex, the awn usually bent, 2-5 mm long; palea 4-5 mm long, membranous, apex acuminate. Caryopsis reddish brown, cylindrical, 2.5-3 mm long, apex attenuate.
(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 )