Ischaemum nativitatis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ischaemum nativitatis | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Subfamily: | Panicoideae |
| Genus: | Ischaemum |
| Species: | I. nativitatis |
| Binomial name | |
| Ischaemum nativitatis Jansen ex Renvoize | |
Ischaemum nativitatis, commonly known as the Christmas Island duck-beak, is a tropical grass in the family Poaceae. It is endemic to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the north-eastern Indian Ocean. The specific epithet comes from the Latin nativitas ("birth") referring to the birth of Christ, or Christmas, after the name of the island.[1]
The Christmas Island duck-beak is an erect, tufted grass, 250–700 mm tall, with the stems often branched and the nodes smooth. The leaves are 30–110 mm long, 2.5–7 mm wide and are scattered along the stem. The two bristly racemes are 15–50 mm long, with long and hairy pedicels and rachis, and with paired, sessile spikelets 4.5 mm long and distinctly awned. The glumes are leathery at the base; the lower, bidentate glume has two membranous wings in the apical half; the upper glume has a winged keel towards the apex and a 6 mm awn. The flowers have glassy lemma and leathery palea about 3.5 mm long, with the awn of the upper lemma 15 mm long and twisted at the base.[1]
