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Vegetative Morphology

 
Plants perennial; cespitose, sometimes rhizomatous, rhizomes forming knotted bases.
Culms 15-200 cm, not branching at the upper nodes.
basal branching intravaginal or extravaginal.
prophylls not evident, shorter than the leaf sheaths.
Leaves mostly basal, not overwintering.
sheaths open to the base.
cleistogenes not present.
collars with tufts of hair on either side.
auricles absent.
ligules membranous, truncate or shortest in the center and rounded, edges usually ciliate.
blades usually convolute, apices narrowly pointed, flag leaves longer than 10 mm.

Reproductive Morphology

 
Inflorescences panicles, often partially included in the upper leaf sheath.
Branches straight.
Spikelets 5.5-24 mm, with 1 floret.
Rachillas not prolonged beyond the floret.
Disarticulation above the glumes, beneath the florets.
Glumes unequal, usually longer than the floret, sometimes shorter, hyaline, 0-5-veined.
Florets narrowly lanceoloid, terete.
Calluses 0.2-1.6(3) mm, acute, less than or equaling the floret diameter, antrorsely strigose distally, hairs white.
Lemmas thickly membranous, basal 2/3 scabrous or shortly pubescent, distal 1/3 often bearing a pappus of ascending to strongly divergent 3-8 mm hairs, sometimes glabrous or with appressed hairs shorter than 1 mm, margins not or only slightly overlapping at maturity, apices not fused into a crown, lobes to 0.2 mm, with a single, terminal awn, awn-lemma junction conspicuous.
Awns 9-45(80) mm, persistent or deciduous, scabrous, weakly once- or twice-geniculate, first segment scabrous or pilose, terminal segment glabrous or pilose, smooth, scabrous, or pilose.
Paleas 1/3-1/2 as long as the lemmas, flat between the veins, membranous to hyaline, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, 2-veined, veins poorly developed, apices rounded to irregular.
Lodicules 2-3, the third, if present, reduced.
Anthers 3.
Caryopses fusiform, not ribbed; hila linear.

Species Distribution Maps

Jarava ichu Jarava plumosa Jarava speciosa

Chromosome Number(s)

x = unknown

Additional Notes

Jarava is a South American genus that used to be included in Stipa. Its limits are currently under study. As treated here, it is a genus of approximately 50 species, all of which are native to South America. It includes three groups that have been recognized as subgenera within Stipa sensu lato: Jarava (Ruiz. & Pav.) Trin. & Rupr., Pappostipa Speg., and PtilostipaSpeg.

One species of the Pappostipa group, Jarava speciosa, grows as a disjunct in the southwestern United States, its broadest distribution being in South America. Two other species, J. ichu and J. plumosa, both members of Jarava sensu stricto, have been found as escapes from cultivation in California.

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Name/Synonymy Publication Info

Jarava Ruiz & Pav?n, Fl. peruv. prodr. 2 (1794). TYPE: Jarava ichu Ruiz & Pav?n.

Treatment from

M.O. Arriaga. Jarava in Flora of North America, volume 24. In prep. Oxford University Press.

Fact Sheet Developed By

Pedro Oñativia Lake © 2006.