Arundinella ciliata Nees ex Miq.

Veldkamp, J. F., 2015, Arundinella (Gramineae) in Malesia with notes on other taxa and on aluminium accumulation, Blumea 59 (3), pp. 167-179 : 175-176

1. Arundinella ciliata Nees ex Miq.

Arundinella ciliata Nees [in Wight (1834) 97, nom. nud.] ex Miq. (1851) 30 ≡ (1851) 30; Drury (1869) 592, isonym. — Arundinella agrostoides Trin. var. ciliata Kuntze (1891) 761. — Lectotype: Wight Cat. 1666 (holo U (now L); K) implicitly appointed by Bor (1955: 412) (see note), designated here.

Holcus ciliatus Roxb. (1814: 82, nomen) (1820) 321. — [ Arundinella agrostoides Trin. (1830) var. ciliata Hook.f.(1896) 71, nom. superfl., non Kuntze (1891)]. — [ Arundinella holcoides (Kunth) Trin.var. ciliata ‘Hook.f. ex Nees’ ex Rhind (1945) 41, nom. superfl.; (‘Roxb.)’ Jansen (1953) 231, idem, isonym]. — Type: Roxburgh s.n. (holo BM; Icon . Ined. 2031, CAL, K).

Arundinella pilosa Hochst. ex [Miq. (1851) 30 ≡ (1851) 30, in syn. sub A. ciliata ] Steud. (1854a) 116. — Arundinella anomala Steud. var. pilosa Honda (1922) 111. — Type: Hohenacker (Metz) 647 (holo P; K, L, U (now L)).

Arundinella agrostoides auct. non Trin.

Arundinella holcoides auct. non Trin.

Plants annual. Culms tufted, erect, 0.15–0.42 m long. Nodes bearded. Sheaths pilose with bb hairs. Throat glabrous. Ligule 0.3–0.7 mm high. Blades flaccid, flat or infolded, linear, 4–19 cm by 3–10 mm, pilose on both sides, base rounded, margins pilose. Peduncle under the panicle glabrous to pilose. Panicle densely contracted to contracted, 6–18 by 1–3 cm, lowermost branch solitary, 1–4.5 cm long, angular, scaberulous,glabrous to sparsely pilose. Pedicels scaberulous, apex not setose. Spikelets 2.8–3.8 mm long, greenish, yellowish, or purple suffused. Glumes sparsely pilose; lower glume 1.8–3.3 mm long, 0.53– 0.94 times as long as the spikelet, distinctly longer than the lower lemma, apex mucronate, 3- or 5-nerved; upper glume 5-nerved, apex long-acuminate. Lower lemma neuter, male, female, or bisexual, 1.5–2.4 mm long, nerves 3, not anastomosing, apex acute; upper lemma 1–1.4 mm long, brownish (mature?), smooth to scaberulous, 0-nerved, callus hairs 0.3–0.5 mm long, 0.21–0.42 times as long as the lemma, apex acute, without lateral setae, awn distinctly exserted beyond the glumes, geniculate, 3.6–4.3 mm long when dry, column 1.4–1.7 mm long when dry. Anthers 3, 0.3–0.5 mm long. 2n = 18, 20.

Distribution — S India: Annamalais and Nilgiri Hills of Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

Habitat — Roadsides, moist rocky places, slopes, 1050– 1800 m altitude.

Notes — Miquel (1851) and Kuntze (1891) only referred to Nees in Wight (1834) and not to Roxburgh (1814, 1820), therefore the combinations Arundinella ciliata Nees ex Miq. and Holcus ciliatus Roxb. are heterotypic. Nees cited Wight 1666, Hochstetter (Metz) 647, Miquel cited both and explicitly (in a footnote) stated that names proposed by Nees had priority over those by Hochstetter. Wight 1666 therefore is the lectotype with the holotype in U (now L), and Hochstetter (Metz) 647 a syntype. Moulik (1997: 56) mentioned the presence of this species also in Maharashtra. I do not know on what this was based.