Centotheca lappacea (L.) Desv.

Desvaux, A.N. (1810) Nouveau Bulletin des Sciences par la Societe Philomatique de Paris : 189.

Plants growing in clumps but also producing stoloniferous runners and rooting at the nodes.

Leaf blades 50-140 x 15-30 mm, venation prominent with many transverse veins, leaf base sometimes asymmetrical. Ligule a fimbriated broad membrane. Leaf sheath with many prominent veins between the main veins.

Flowers borne in panicles 20-25 cm long. Lateral branches 4-15 cm long, angular and very thin. Spikelets green, ca. 5 mm long, each spikelet consisting of 2 flowers, each bisexual. Glumes 2.5-4 mm long. Upper glume mucronate, with or without a few rigid reflexed bristles on the marginal veins. Lemma 2-2.5 mm long, lacking an awn. Anthers white, cca. 0.5 mm long. Ovary ca. 0.4 mm long. Styles 2, plumose and white.

Fruit ellipsoidal, ca. 1 mm long. Testa smooth and glossy. Endosperm white, granular. Embryo very small.

Features not available.

Occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 120 m. Grows in rainforest, vineforest, swamp forest and riparian forest. Also from Africa, China and eastern Asia, India, Indo-China, Malesia, and Papuasia.