keys to the vascular plants of east texas - Botanical Research ...

872 POACEAE/CINNA
2–3 mm long (the inflorescences thus appearing bristly-woolly at arms length); lemma of fertile
floret with awn 5–15 mm long; reduced floret 1(–2), similar to fertile except smaller, 1.4–2.9
mm long, with awn 3–9.5 mm long. Disturbed prairies, roadsides, waste places; widely scattered
throughout TX; most of the s 2/3 of the U.S., scattered elsewhere. May–Nov. Reported to be fair
to poor forage (Hatch et al. 1999) and “palatable to livestock” (Powell 1994).
CINNA L. WOOD REED
AA C3 genus of 4 species of the New World and temperate Eurasia, typically found in damp
woods (Brandenburg ined.). The monotypic genus Limnodea is related to Cinna (from which it
differs in various ways, including its annual habit, its smaller size, and its lemmas with long
awns) and is sometimes treated in that genus (e.g., Tucker 1996; Yatskievych 1999). However,
Brandenburg and Thieret (2000) stressed the differences between these genera and noted, “The
inclusion of Limnodea in Cinna introduces a markedly discordant element into the latter small
and well-circumscribed genus. The four currently recognized species of Cinna are quite similar
to each other and all differ consistently from the monotypic Limnodea in several significant
features….These genera are not congeneric.” (Greek: kinna, old name for a grass—Hitchcock 1951
or Latin cinna, a grass from Cilicia—a Roman province in southeast Asia Minor, now part of
Turkey—Brandenburg ined.) (subfamily Pooideae, tribe Poeae)
REFERENCES: Brandenburg 1980, ined.; Brandenburg et al. 1991c; Tucker 1996; Brandenburg &
Thieret 2000.
Cinna arundinacea L., (resembling a reed), STOUT WOOD REED, WOOD REED, WOOD REED GRASS,
SWEET WOOD GRASS. Tall perennial, somewhat bulbose basally; culms usually (0.3–)1–1.5(–1.8)
m tall, glabrous; ligule a scale 2–11 mm long; leaf blades flat, 9–35 cm long, 3–19 mm wide; inflorescence
a panicle 6.5–35(–55) cm long, loosely to densely-flowered, the branches ascending
to spreading (sometimes drooping), with spikelets nearly to base; spikelets 1-flowered, flattened
laterally, (3.5–)4–6(–7.5) mm long, disarticulating below glumes; lower glume shorter than
lemma, 1-veined; upper glume equal to or slightly longer than lemma, 3-veined; lemma usually
3-veined, (2.7–)3.5–5(–6.4) mm long, with an awn 0.2–1.5 mm long (rarely absent) from minutely
notched apex; palea 1-veined, shorter than lemma; stamen 1. Moist woodlands; Anderson,
Harrison, Smith (BRIT), Grayson, and Henderson (J. Singhurst, pers. comm.) cos. in the n
part of East TX, Brandenburg et al. (1991c) also mapped (without specific counties) the occurrence
of this species in the ne part of East TX; se Canada and most of e U.S. w to ND and TX.
Mostly Jul–Oct. [C. arundinacea var. inexpansa Fernald & Griscom] While not officially designated
as such (e.g., TOES 1993; Carr 2002d; Poole et al. 2002), given its limited and disjunct distribution
in the state, we consider this species to be of conservation concern in TX. �
COELORACHIS Brongn. JOINT-TAIL
Perennials with or without rhizomes; ligule a short ciliate membrane; leaf blades flat, 8 mm or
less wide; inflorescence a very slender, elongate, cylindrical, spike-like raceme (pencil-like but
much smaller in diam.), breaking apart at the nodes of the inflorescence axis, the base of each
internode with a niche on one side into which the spikelets fit closely; spikelets awnless, in
pairs of 1 sessile and fertile and 1 pedicelled, reduced, and sterile; sessile spikelets with 2 florets,
the lower sterile, the upper fertile; pedicels as broad as or broader than reduced spikelets.
AA mainly tropical genus of ca. 20 species (Allen 2003b) related to Rottboellia, Rhytachne
(Clayton & Renvoize 1986), and Mnesithea (Veldkamp et al. 1986). Generic boundaries among
Coelorachis and its relatives have long been unsettled, and the species treated here have sometimes
been put into Manisuris (e.g., Correll & Johnston 1970) or Mnesithea (e.g., Veldkamp et al.
1986; Jones et al. 1997; Hatch 2002; Turner et al. 2003). However, Coelorachis seems to be “sufficiently
distinct to be maintained until more data are available” (Allen 2003b), and we are thus