Arundinella holcoides (Kunth) Trin.

Veldkamp, J. F., 2015, Arundinella (Gramineae) in Malesia with notes on other taxa and on aluminium accumulation, Blumea 59 (3), pp. 167-179 : 172-173

4. Arundinella holcoides (Kunth) Trin.

Arundinella holcoides (Kunth) Trin.(1836) 107. — Brandtia holcoides Kunth (1831) 511, t. 170. — Type: Raynaud A˚ 1828 (? B or P, not found, cf. Bor (1955: 414); L).

Arundinella agrostoides Trin. (1830) t. 265. — Lectotype: Anon. ‘ Manila ’ (holo LE n.v., not in Herb. Trin.; K, sh.290214,p.p.; 290215),290215 designated by Teerawatananon (2009).

Arundinella hirsuta Nees ex Steud.(1854a) 115,# 13 (non #16). — Lectotype: Gomez s.n. in Wallich 8671 (holo P; K, sh. 245950,290214,p.p.; K-W: IDC microfiche 7394; W, fragm.), here designated.

Arundinella birmanica Hook.f. (1896) 73. — Lectotype: Kurz 3161 (holo K), designated by Bor (1955: 413).

Arundinella pubescens Merr. & Hack. in Hack. (1907b) 419; ex Janowski (1922) 23, 27. — Type: BS 856 ( Foxworthy ) (holo W; L, NY, US; PNH†).

Arundinella fuscata Nees ex Buse var. celebica Jansen (1953) 233. — Type: Bünnemeijer 11718 (holo BO; K, L, U).

Arundinella ciliata auct. non Miq.

Arundinella hispida auct. non Kuntze.

Arundinella holcoides (Kunth) Trin. var. ciliata auct. non Jansen.

Arundinella setosa auct. non Trin.

Plants annual. Culms tufted to more or less solitary, erect to ascending, 0.06–0.65 m long. Nodes bearded, rarely glabrous. Sheaths pilose with bb hairs to glabrescent to glabrous, or margins hairy (in A. agrostoides ). Throat glabrous or hairy. Ligule 0.2–0.8 mm high. Blades flaccid, flat, lanceolate to linear, 1.5–26 cm by 2.25–14 mm, pilose on both sides or glabrescent or glabrous (in A. agrostoides ), margins pilose or smooth (in A. agrostoides ). Peduncle glabrous to pilose under the panicle. Panicle loosely contracted to fairly lax, interrupted at base, 1.5–32 by 1–8 cm, lowermost branches 1–3 together, longest one 0.5–9 cm long, angular, scaberulous, rarely smooth, sparsely pilose, rarely glabrous. Pedicels smooth to scaberulous to sparsely pilose. Spikelets (2.2–) 2.7–5.6 mm long, whitish with green nerves, greenish, yellowish, or purple suffused. Glumes sparsely pilose or glabrous (in A. agrostoides ); lower glume 1.2–3.8 mm long, 0.44–0.8 times as long as the spikelet, slightly shorter to slightly longer than the lower lemma, apex acuminate or mucronate, 3- or 5-nerved; upper glume 5- or 7-nerved, apex long-acuminate. Lower lemma neuter, male, female, or bisexual, 1.5–4 mm long, 3- or 5-nerved, apex acute; upper lemma 1–2.3 mm long, castaneous in fruit, microscopically scaberulous (40 ×!), 0-nerved, callus puberulous, hairs 0.1–0.6 mm long, 0.1–0.4 times as long as the lemma, apex acute, without lateral setae, awn distinctly exserted beyond the glumes, geniculate, 2.5–6.5 mm long when dry, column 1.2–3 mm long when dry. Anthers 3, 0.3–1 mm long.

Distribution — India, W Bengal (Calcutta, Rel. Helf. 157, L, PR), Burma: Bago Div.(= Pegu; Raynoud A˚ 1828, L; Scott s.n.,K), Yangon (= Rangoon; McClelland 4 Jan. 1854, K); Insein, Min- gladon, Mon State: (Mawlamyine = Moulmein); Ayeyarwaddy (= Irrawaddi Prov., Bassein Distr., Thabound: Dickason 8301, A, L, RANG), Tanintharyi (= Tenasserim) Div.: Dawei (Tavoy: W. Gomez in Wallich 8671, IDC microfiche, K, P, W); Tawer, Kan- bauk (Maxwell 98-1183, 98-4266, CMU, L); Mergui; unknown (Pazwoandoung; Kurz 1132);? Thailand (Peninsular: Ranong; Nanakorn & Norsangsri 2001: 38, cite A. birmanica ), Vietnam: highlands of Chlong and Dong Nai (‘Donnaï’, 700–1200 m alt., fide Schmid 1958, sub A. birmanica ); Poilane 24007, L, P), Da- nang (d’Alleizette 2 June 1909, L), Nha Trang (d’Alleizette 6 –9 June 1909, L); Malesia: SW Celebes (Bonthain, Lombasang), Philippines (Luzon: Abra Prov., Daguioman; Mountain Prov. Baguio /Bontoc; Rizal: Fort KcKinley; Zambales: Mt Tapolao), Mindoro (Oriental, Rizal), Palawan (Iwahig, Victoria Mts), Lesser Sunda Isl. (Timor, see note).

Habitat — Steep slopes, grass land, logged over pine forest, degraded thicket and weed area, poor soils, 25–1890 m altitude. According to Rhind (1945: 41) frequent in Burma in the moister parts all over the plains.

Collector’s notes — Culms tufted, blades green above, light green underneath, inflorescence axes dull green, spikelets pale light green to violet with green nerves, awns violet.

Notes — Trinius (1830) implied the presence of at least two syntypes: ‘ Manila ’, and ‘ wahovensi ’. I presume the latter is derived from ‘wahov’ = Oahu = Hawai’i, which then is a mislabel- ling, as Arundinella does not occur there.

The combination is sometimes cited as ‘non Hochst.’. The latter is a nomen nudum originally cited in the synonymy of A. setifera Steud. , which is a synonym of A. setosa .

In vain have I tried to find distinctions between the Burmese, Vietnamese, and Central Malesian populations and in the end was forced to unite them, which results in a curiously disjunct distribution.

Although Touraine and Nha Trang were well-known localities in her time, apparently no material was available to Camus & Camus for their treatment in the Flore de l’Indo-Chine (1922). Moulik (1997: 57) mentioned the presence of A. holcoides also for Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala. The latter three no doubt are a confusion with A. ciliata , the first two I cannot explain.

Arundinella agrostoides differs mainly by the glabrous sheaths and leaf blades with smooth margins, and rather small spikelets (2–3.2 mm long) and seems to be a local form of Luzon.

Arundinella hirsuta is based on a mixture of things: the lectotype came from Tavoy (now Dawei) in Burma, and unnamed collections from the Himalaya and Courtallum (which is in SW Tamil Nadu). No form of the A. ciliata -complex is known to me from the Himalayas, while Courtallum suggests A. ciliata s.str., with which e.g. Bor has equated it.

Arundinella hirsuta sensu Hohenacker 920 from the Nilgiris ( Steudel 1854a: 115, in syn. sub # 16, A. setifera ) is A. setosa . The type specimens of A. pubescens in W and the original description differ in some details, e.g. I have seen no male first lemmas, only sterile ones. As in A. agrostoides the glumes are glabrous. It is said to occur in Taiwan as well ( Kuoh & Chen 2002: 443, Sun & Phillips 2006: 569), but the collections seen belong to A. filiformis .

Jansen described Arundinella fuscata var. celebica on two collections: Bünnemeijer 11718 from Celebes, and Kuntze 4805 from Java. Bünnemeijer’s specimens (BO, K, L, U) are stout examples of A. holcoides , Kuntze’s specimens (K, NY) belong to A. goeringii . For Timor only known by Teijsmann 8947 (BO), while in L (incl. fragm. in Herb. Hackel) there is a specimen in the Herb. Balansa (L 908.93-24) which may be a duplicate of this.