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Inflorescences

Dissection of
Arundinaria gigantea

ARUNDINARIA Michx.
Plants hermaphroditic, rhizomatous, perennial. Culms arborescent (2-8 m tall), erect or ascending, primary branches per mid-culm node 1 (branching into 3-7 secondary branches), glabrous; internodes hollow, terete. Leaves cauline, not distinctly distichous; sheaths terete, margins open; auricles hairs present; ligules a ciliate membrane or a line of hairs; blades flat, wide, pseudopetiolate, tessellate (cross-veined). Reproductive structures not produced every year, seldom flowering. Panicles or racemes (or single spikelets) open, branches or pedicels spreading or ascending. Spikelets solitary (2-8 cm long in our species), laterally compressed, disarticulation above the glumes, awned, pedicellate; florets 6-15, callus glabrous, rachilla not extended beyond upper floret; glumes 1 or 2, unequal or equal, shorter than first floret, glabrous, awnless; lemmas 9-15-veined, membranous or chartaceous, glabrous, apex acuminate, tapering into a apical awn or mucro; paleas 4-13-veined, 2-keeled, awnless, glabrous. Stamens 3. Caryopses longitudinally grooved. Base chromosome number x=6. A genus of about 50 species.