Mnesithea
Genus of grasses
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mnesithea, or jointtail grass, is a genus of Asian, Australian, and Pacific Island plants in the grass family.[3][4][5][6][7] The number of species placed in the genus varied considerably as of November 2024[update] depending in large part on how the genus Coelorachis was treated. Sources that synonymized Coelorachis with Mnesithea accepted about 26 species. Those that synonymized Coelorachis with Rottboellia accepted about seven.
| Jointtail grass | |
|---|---|
| |
| Mnesithea formosa | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Subfamily: | Panicoideae |
| Supertribe: | Andropogonodae |
| Tribe: | Andropogoneae |
| Subtribe: | Rottboelliinae |
| Genus: | Mnesithea Kunth |
| Type species | |
| Mnesithea laevis (Retz.) Kunth | |
| Synonyms[1][2] | |
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(For the broad circumscription)
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Taxonomy
The genus Mnesithea was erected by Carl Sigismund Kunth in 1829.[8] The circumscription of the genus varied as of November 2024[update]. A 2015 classification of Poaceae treated Coelorachis as a synonym of Mnesithea.[9] This treatment was supported by Welker et al. in 2020, based on a molecular phylogenetic study,[10] and was used by the Germplasm Resources Information Network[11] and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System.[1] In this circumscription, the genus has about 26 species including those formerly placed in Coelorachis.[9] Alternatively, Plants of the World Online, following Veldkamp et al. in 2013,[12] treated Coelorachis as a synonym of Rottboellia,[13] with only seven species in the genus Mnesithea.[8]
Species
Seven species were accepted in the narrow circumscription as of November 2024[update]:[8]
- Mnesithea annua (Lazarides) de Koning & Sosef - Western Australia
- Mnesithea formosa (R.Br.) de Koning & Sosef - Lesser Sunda Islands, New Guinea, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland
- Mnesithea laevis (Retz.) Kunth - Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Japan incl Nansei-shotō, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Pacific Islands
- Mnesithea mollicoma (Hance) A.Camus - Guangdong, Guangxi, Thailand, Vietnam, Palawan, Java, Malaysia, Philippines, Sulawesi
- Mnesithea pilosa B.K.Simon - Queensland
- Mnesithea thailandica Traiperm & Boonkerd - Thailand
- Mnesithea veldkampii Potdar, S.P.Gaikwad, Salunkhe & S.R.Yadav - Maharashtra
Further species accepted when Coelorachis is synonymized with Mnesithea include the following, which other sources place in Rottboellia:[14][11][1]
- Mnesithea afraurita (Stapf) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis afraurita)
- Mnesithea aurita (Steud.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis aurita)
- Mnesithea balansae (Hack.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis balansae)
- Mnesithea cancellata (Ridl.) Ridl. (= Coelorachis cancellata)
- Mnesithea capensis (Stapf) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis capensis)
- Mnesithea clarkei (Hack.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis clarkei)
- Mnesithea cylindrica (Michx.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis cylindrica)
- Mnesithea geminata (Hack.) Ridl. (= Coelorachis geminata)
- Mnesithea glandulosa (Trin.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis glandulosa)
- Mnesithea helferi (Hook.f.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis helferi)
- Mnesithea impressa (Griseb.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis impressa)
- Mnesithea khasiana (Hack.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis khasiana)
- Mnesithea laevispica (Keng) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis laevispica)
- Mnesithea lepidura (Stapf) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis lepidura)
- Mnesithea parodiana (Henrard) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis parodiana)
- Mnesithea ramosa (E.Fourn.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis ramosa)
- Mnesithea rottboellioides (R.Br.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis rottboellioides)
- Mnesithea rugosa (Nutt.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis rugosa)
- Mnesithea selloana (Hack.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis selloana)
- Mnesithea striata (Nees ex Steud.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis striata)
- Mnesithea tessellata (Steud.) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis tessellata)
- Mnesithea tuberculosa (Nash) de Koning & Sosef (= Coelorachis tuberculosa)