Sporobolus sect. Thellungia (Stapf) P. M. Peterson, Romasch. & Soreng, 2025

Peterson, Paul M., Romaschenko, Konstantin, Soreng, Robert J. & Herrera Arrieta, Yolanda, 2025, Reticulation within Sporobolus: recognition of two new sections, Acinifolii and Thellungia, and a new genus, Hyalolemma (Poaceae, Chloridoideae, Zoysieae, Sporobolinae), PhytoKeys 261, pp. 99-123 : 99-123

Sporobolus sect. Thellungia (Stapf) P. M. Peterson, Romasch. & Soreng , comb. et stat. nov.

Type.

Sporobolus advenus (Stapf) P. M. Peterson , Taxon 63 (3): 1232. 2014 ≡ Thellungia advena Stapf ≡ Eragrostis advena (Stapf) S. M. Phillips .

Description.

Caespitose perennials often with short to long rhizomes; innovations mostly intravaginal. Culms 60–300 cm tall, erect, sometimes geniculately ascending. Leaf sheaths open for most of their length, glabrous, sometimes coriaceous near base; ligules 0.1–0.8 mm long, a line of hairs; blades 10–30 cm long, (0.5 –) 1–6 mm wide, flat to involute, sometimes convolute and filiform, smooth, scabrous near the margins, glabrous. Inflorescence a panicle 5–50 cm long, spiciform and contracted ( S. advenus , S. megalospermus , sometimes S. ramigerus ) or open ( S. collinus ), diffuse, ovate. Spikelets 3–17 mm long, 2–15 (– 27) - flowered, linear, lanceolate, ovate to oblong, occasionally cleistogamous, sometimes with a rachilla extension ( S. advenus ); glumes shorter than the spikelet, 1 - veined; lower glumes 0.5–0.9 as long as the upper glume; upper glumes 1.25–4 mm long, apex acute to obtuse; lemmas 1.8–3 mm long, 3 - veined, sometimes 1 - veined, ovate or lanceolate, hyaline, membranous to cartilaginous, often olive-green to dark greenish purple, apex acute, sometimes obtuse to truncate; paleas 1 / 2 to as long as the lemma, 2 - veined, with wide flaps usually wider than the body and usually splitting along the midline; Flowers perfect; lodicules 2, cuneate; stamens 3, anthers 0.3–2 mm long, usually greenish; ovary glabrous. Caryopses 0.9–1.2 mm long, 3 - or 4 - angled, strongly laterally compressed to ovoid, globose, sometimes stipitate ( S. ramigerus ) with a free pericarp.

Species.

Sporobolus advenus , S. megalospermus , S. ramigerus , and one more below.

Distribution.

Australasia and Central Asia.