Allolepis texana

Allolepis is a monotypic genus of plants in the Poaceae family. Its only species: Allolepis texana (Vasey) Soderstr. & H.F. Decker, is originally from the southern United States.

Illustration

Description

It is a perennial herbaceous plant; dioecious; rhizomatous and stoloniferous (long, solid stolons). Stems 70 cm to 1 m tall. Cane nodules glabrous. unarmed plants. Leaves not basally aggregated; no auricles. Leaf-blades linear; narrow; 3–5 mm wide (to 3 dm long); flats; without multicellular abaxial glands; no cross venation; persistent. Ligule of very dense rows of hairs. Contraligula absent.

Range, ecology, phytogeography

1 species; southern US. Open habitat species; apparently glycophytic (in contrast to its relative Distichlis). sandy sites. Holarctic. Boreal and Madrean. American North Atlantic. North American South Atlantic.

Taxonomy

The genus was described by Soderstr. & H.F.Decker and published in Madroño 18(2): 34. 1965.

Etymology

The name of the genus derives from the Greek allo (different), and lepis (scale), alluding to the differences between male and female lemmas.

texana: geographical epithet that alludes to its location in Texas.

Cytology

The basic chromosome number of the genus is x = 10, with somatic chromosome numbers of 2n = 40 tetraploid.

Sinonimia

• Distichlis texana (Vasey) Scribn.
• Poa texana Vasey
• Sieglingia wrightii Vasey