Chloris telanganae Nagaraju, Prasanna, Y. V. Rao & S. B. Padal 2020, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Nagaraju, Siddabathula
name: Prasanna, Parigi Venkateswara
name: Rao, Yechuri Venkateswara
name: Padal, Salugu Bodayya
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Liliopsida
Poales
Poaceae
Chloris
Chloris telanganae

description: Chloris telanganae Nagaraju, Prasanna, Y.V. Rao & S.B. Padal sp. nov. (Figs. 1 & 2)
Type: — INDIA. Telangana State: Ranga Reddy district, Professor Jayashankar Telangana state Agricultural University, Rajendranagar, 17.32534ºN, 078.41068ºE, 538 m, 1 August 2018, S. Nagaraju 8518 (holotype: BSID, isotypes: CAL, BSID).
Diagnosis:— The new species, Chloris telanganae closely allied to C. wightiana, but differs in having glabrous culms, leaf sheaths and blades (vs. densely pustulose-pilose); spikes 4–5, 3–11.5 cm long (vs. 3–4, 1–2.5 cm long); scabrous rachis (vs. pustulose-pilose); awns arise from back of lemmas (vs. from sinus); fertile lemma sparsely hairy both sides of the mid nerve and densely hairy along lateral nerves (vs. coarsely scabrid dorsally), pale yellowish-brown at maturity (vs. blackish at maturity); oblanceolate fertile palea (vs. ovate-elliptic); scabrous sterile florets (vs. pustulose-pilose) and oblong or oblong-lanceolate caryopsis (vs. ovate-elliptic or elliptic-oblong).
Description:—Caespitose, perennials; stoloniferous. Culms 17–60 cm high, geniculate, terete, brown, glabrous. Leaf blades cauline, linear, 1–19.5 × 0.1–0.15 cm, acuminate at apex, margins serrulate, glabrous; ligule 1–1.9 mm long, membranous, hairy on back; leaf sheath keeled, 2–6.5 cm long, glabrous. Culms puberulous below the inflorescence. Peduncle c. 20 cm long. Spikes 4–5, 3–11.5 cm long, appressed or slightly divergent. Spikelets densely imbricate, spreading widely; rachis angular and scabrid, 3–10 cm long; Spikelets oblanceolate, 3–3.2 × 1–1.5 mm, yellowish-brown. Lower glume linear to lanceolate, 1.5–2 × 0.4–0.9 mm, acute to finely mucronate at apex and lacerate, chartaceous, greenish-yellow, 1-nerved, keeled, scabrid on keel. Upper glume linear to lanceolate, 3–3.5 × 0.4–1 mm, acuminate, shortly mucronate apex and lacerate, 1-nerved, keeled, scabrid on keel. Florets 4–5, lowest one fertile, others sterile; disarticulating above persistent glumes; callus at base, pungent, 0.5–0.7 mm long. Fertile lemma broadly elliptic or elliptic to obovate, 3–3.2 × 1–1.2 mm, chartaceous, pale yellowish-brown, 3-nerved, sparsely hairy on both sides of the mid nerve and densely hairy on lateral nerves, hairs 1–1.2 mm long; awn arise from back, 10–12.5 mm long, straight, barbellate. Fertile palea shortly stalked, oblanceolate, 2–2.9 × 1–1.5 mm, emarginate at apex, 2- nerved, 2-keeled, keels scabrid, pustulose-pilose towards upper portion on back side. First sterile lemma obovate, 1–1.2 × 1 mm, acute to obtuse at apex, hairy on one side below the apex, chartaceous, 3-nerved, awn 6.5–9 mm long, scabrid. Second sterile lemma obovate to orbicular, c. 1 × 1 mm, acute to obtuse, 3-nerved, awn 7–7.2 mm long. Third sterile lemma obovate to orbicular, c. 1 × 1 mm, acute to obtuse, awn 4–4.5 mm long. Fourth sterile lemma obovate to orbicular, 0.5 × 0.5 mm, acute to obtuse, awn 2–2.1 mm long. Lodicules 2, oblanceolate, c. 0.4 mm long. Stamens 3; anthers 0.7–0.9 mm long. Ovary oblong to elliptic, c. 0.7 × 0.2 mm; stigma plumose, 1–1.5 mm long, reddish-brown. Caryopsis oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 1–1.5 × 0.4 mm, strongly dorsally flattened, yellowish-brown.
Etymology:— The new species is named after the State ‘Telangana’, where the type locality is located.
Phenology:— August-September.
Habitat:— Found in open grassland, at an elevation between 500– 550 m. a.s.l. and commonly associated species are Chloris quinquesetica Bhide (1912: 311), Dactyloctenium aegyptium (Linnaeus 1753: 560) Willdenow (1809: 1029), Digitaria bicornis (Lamarck 1791: 176) Roemer & Schultes (1817: 470), Parthenium hysterophorus Linnaeus (1753: 988), Senna uniflora (Miller 1768: 5) Irwin & Barneby (1982: 258), Setaria pumila (Poiret 1816: 273) Roemer & Schultes (1817: 891), Tephrosia villosa (Linnaeus 1753: 752) Persoon (1807: 329) and Tragus mongolorum Ohwi (1941: 268).
Distribution and ecology:— Chloris telanganae is currently known only from the type locality at the Professor Jayashankar Telangana state Agricultural University, Rajendranagar, Ranga Reddy district, Telangana, India.
Table 1. Comparison of new species Chloris telanganae with C. quinquesetica and C. wightiana.
description: Published as part of Nagaraju, Siddabathula, Prasanna, Parigi Venkateswara, Rao, Yechuri Venkateswara & Padal, Salugu Bodayya, 2020, Chloris telanganae (Chloridoideae: Poaceae), a new species from Telangana State, India, pp. 195-200 in Phytotaxa 434 (2) on pages 195-198, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.434.2.5, http://zenodo.org/record/13875310