Tropicos | Name - Stipa L.

Stipa L.

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Project Data (Last Modified On 6/3/2011)

General/Distribution: A genus of about 300 species; mainly temperate and warm temperate regions of the World; 21 species occur in Pakistan.

Comment/Acknowledgements: Stipa is not always clearly separated from Piptatherum P. Beauv., a genus with untwisted awns and glabrous, obtuse callus. Some attempts have been made to divide Stipa into smaller genera, particularly by authors in the USSR, but since no uniform treatment is available for Stipa worldwide, the genus is treated here in a wide sense. According to the latest accounts species 1-4 belong to Achnatherum, 5 & 6 to Ptilagrostis and 7-21 to Stipa.

Stipa is a large and confusing genus that has, in our area, been badly misunderstood in the past, and in consequence the presence of a number of species listed in Stewart’s catalogue has not been confirmed. These are Stipa barbata Desf., Stipa hohenackerana Trin. & Rupr, Stipa roylei (Nees) Mez, Stipa pennata Linn. and Stipa duthiei Hook.f.

Many of the species of Stipa are represented in our area by only a handful of specimens (sometimes only one or two) and doubtless many more species will be found in the more mountainous parts of Kashmir. The species, although mostly very close together, are nevertheless relatively easy to distinguish. A useful account of the species of Central Asia can be found in volume 4 (Gramineae) of Plantae Asiae Centralis (1968) published by Academia Scientiarum URSS.

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1	Callus obtuse or conical; lemma 2-toothed at the tip	(2)
+	Callus acuminate, pungent, rarely blunt S.sibirica); lemma entire at the tip	(7)

2 (1)	Awn glabrous throughout its length or thinly hairy on the column	(3)
+	Awn plumose throughout its length	(6)

3 (2)	Glumes conspicuously unequal	(4)
+	Glumes ± equal	(5)

4 (3)	Lemma 4.8-5.7 mm long, the apical teeth 0.5-1.3 mm long; awn 6-12 mm long	Stipa splendens
+	Lemma 9-10 mm long, the apical teeth c.2.5 mm long; awn 16-20 mm long	Stipa chitralensis

5 (3)	Panicle loose and spreading, the branches bare in the lower half to two-thirds	Stipa caragana
+	Panicle narrow, the branches short and ascending, spiculate to the base	Stipa jacquemontii

6 (2)	Panicle narrow and ± contracted, the branches and pedicels erect, not capillary; awn unigeni culate, 10-15 mm long	Stipa concinna
+	Panicle very loose and open, the branches and pedicels capillary, spreading; awn bigeniculate, 15-30 mm long	Stipa mongholica

7 (1)	Glumes lanceolate, acute or slightly acuminate, not much longer than the lemma (c. 1.5 times as long)	(8)
+	Glumes narrowly lanceolate and long-acuminate, much longer than the lemma (2-4 times as long)	(10)

8 (7)	Leaf-blades involute and setaceous, no more than 1 mm wide when flattened; spikelets deeply suffused with purple	(9)
+	Leaf-blades flat, 3.5-8(-12) mm wide; spikelets pallid or green	Stipa sibirica

9 (8)	Awn with plumose column (hairs up to 1 mm long) and shortly hairy bristle (hairs 0.2-0.3 mm long)	Stipa regeliana
+	Awn with long-plumose column (hairs 25-3.5 mm long) and scaberulous bristle	Stipa subsessiliflora

10 (7)	Perennial; awns not twisted together into a tail (except in S. consanguinea)	(11)
+	Annual; awns at length twisted together to form a tail at the summit of the panicle	Stipa capensis

11 (10)	Awn scabrid throughout its length or with hairs not more than 0.8 mm long	(12)
+	Awn either plumose throughout its length with longest hairs (1.5-)3-7 mm long or partly plumose and partly smooth, scabrid or very shortly hairy	(14)

12 (11)	Awns not becoming entangled to form a tail	(13)
+	Awns at length entangled to form a tail at the summit of the panicle, shortly puberulous throughout their length; lemma 8-10 mm long, with a crown of short stiff hairs at the tip	Stipa consanguinea

13 (12)	Awn scabrid throughout its length; lemma 10-14 mm long, smooth towards the top and without a crown of stiff hairs at the tip	Stipa capillata
+	Awn shortly plumose (hairs not exceeding 0.8 mm) throughout its length; lemma 5-7 mm long, spinulose-scabrid towards the top and with a crown of stiff hairs at the tip	Stipa breviflora

14 (11)	Awn bigeniculate; bristle often flexuous or recurved but not rigidly falcate	(15)
+	Awn unigeniculate with a rigidly falcate bristle	Stipa caucasica

15 (14)	Glumes lanceolate, shortly acuminate, deeply suffused with purple	(16)
+	Glumes narrowly lanceolate and long-acuminate, green or silvery, but not deeply suffused with purple(though sometimes faintly tinged)	(17)

16 (15)	Panicle loose with long, flexuous, ± filiform branches	Stipa purpurea
+	Panicle narrow, linear with short, stiff, rigidly erect branches	Stipa roborowskyi

17 (15)	Awn plumose, or at least shortly hairy, throughout its length	(18)
+	Awn with plumose bristle, but smooth or scabrid column	(20)

18 (17)	Awn (9-)10-20 cm long	(19)
+	Awn 3.5-7 cm long	Stipa orientalis

19 (18)	Hairs on column of awn 0.5-1 3 mm long	Stipa arabica
+	Hairs on column of awn 2-3 mm long	Stipa himalaica

20 (17)	Lemma (13-) 15-25 mm long	Stipa kirghisorum
+	Lemma 11-13 mm long	Stipa trichoides