Olyra taquara Swallen 1966
Creators: name: Lopes-Neto, Raimundo Balieiro
name: Viana, Pedro Lage
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Liliopsida
Poales
Poaceae
Olyra
Olyra taquara

description: Olyra taquara Swallen (1966: 87). Fig 7 E–G.
Type:— BRAZIL. Goiás: Jataí, in swamp forest at Riberão Grande, 25 July 1956, Macedo 4386 (holotype US, isotype US).
Short-rhizomatous, thick creeping base. Culms 2–3.5 m tall, erect, internodes 23.6–25 cm long, hollow, smooth, glabrous; nodes not compressed, glabrous to short-pubescent. Leaf sheath glabrous to pubescent, dark brown trichomes, caducous, margins densely pubescent, dark brown trichomes, caducous; ligules ca. 1.8 mm, membranous; pseudopetioles ca. 3 mm long, short-pubescent, usually recurved and positioning the blades downward; blades 22–32 × 4.5–6 cm, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, glabrous on both surfaces or sparsely pubescent in the abaxial surface, with caducous trichomes toward the base, symmetrical, base cordate, margins scabrous, apex acuminate. Synflorescences 12–18 × 2.5–15 cm, paniculiform, the lower branches whorled, the upper ones alternate, each branch with male spikelets in pairs, one short- and the other long-pedicellate and 2–4 terminal female spikelets, rachis strongly angled and sparingly pilose, pedicels ca. 1 mm, filiform, scabrous. Male spikelets 13 × 0.9–2 mm, lanceolate, yellowish (in siccus), glabrous, falling entire; lemma 3-nerved, apex awned, ca. 2 mm long; palea 2-nerved, apex apiculate; stamens 3, included, filaments ca. 0.2 mm, glabrous, anthers ca. 3 mm, black (in siccus). Female spikelets 10–20 × 3–4 mm, fusiform, pale green to stramineous in siccus, mottled with purple spots, shortly pilose, dispersion above the glumes; the glumes subequal, 5-nerved, apex aristate; anthecium 8–9 × 2–3 mm, fusiform, stramineous (in siccus), indurate, irregularly pitted with small excavations; lemma 5-nerved, glabrous, margins ciliate, apex acute; palea 2-nerved, glabrous; lodicules ca 2 mm long; ovary ca. 2 mm long, fusiform, glabrous, style 3.5 mm long, glabrous, stigma 2, plumose. Caryopsis not seen.
Specimens examined: — BRAZIL. Pará: 14 December 1956, Pires & Black 6261 (IAN). Altamira: Reserva Biológica Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo, Br-163, Ramal de Fazenda a 9.9 km ao sul da Cachoeira do Curuá, 456 m, 8°49’10.1”S, 54°57’34.4”W, 23 May 2021, Lopes-Neto et al. 638 (MG); Ramal principal da REBIONSC, entrada a 65km ao sul de Cachoeira da Serra, 591 m, 9°04’27”S, 54°45’17.1”W, 25 May 2021, Lopes Neto et al. 681 (MG). Novo Progresso: Campo de Provas Brigadeiro Velloso, Acesso pela Br-163, a 64 km ao sul de Cachoeira da Serra, 559 m, 9°11’05.8”S, 54°54’19”W, 24 May 2021, Lopes-Neto et al. 669 (MG).
Distribution and habitat: —This species is found in Central Brazil (DF, GO, MG, MT, MS and PA), in the shade of gallery forests between 300 to 1,000 meters (Soderstrom & Zuloaga 1989). In the Serra do Cachimbo, it was found in Open ombrophilous forest.
Comments: — Olyra taquara is distinguished from its congeners from Serra do Cachimbo by the ovate to oblonglanceolate leaves, pseudopetioles usually recurved and positioning the blades downward and the female spikelets and anthecium fusiform, the anthecium with small excavations. See comments under O. ecaudata to differentiate these two species.
description: Published as part of Lopes-Neto, Raimundo Balieiro & Viana, Pedro Lage, 2022, Flora of the Serra do Cachimbo (Eastern Amazon, Brazil): Bambusoideae (Poaceae), including the description of two new species, pp. 99-129 in Phytotaxa 550 (2) on pages 118-119, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.550.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/6641088