| # The grass genera of the world |

L. Watson, T.D. Macfarlane, and M.J. Dallwitz

### Monocladus Chia, Fung & Yang

~ Bonia

Habit, vegetative morphology. Perennial. The flowering culms leafy. Culms 100–500 cm high; woody and persistent; to 0.4–1.5 cm in diameter; branched above. Culm internodes solid. Unicaespitose. Rhizomes pachymorph. Leaves not basally aggregated; auriculate; with auricular setae. Leaf blades linear-lanceolate to lanceolate; subcoriaceous; broad; 35–80 mm wide (and 20–40 cm long); pseudopetiolate; minutely cross veined; disarticulating from the sheaths.

Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, all with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets.

Inflorescence. Inflorescence indeterminate; with pseudospikelets; spatheate.

Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets unconventional; disarticulating above the glumes; disarticulating between the florets. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret.

Glumes two; shorter than the spikelets; shorter than the adjacent lemmas; pointed; similar. Spikelets with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets distal to the female-fertile florets. The distal incomplete florets merely underdeveloped.

Female-fertile florets 1. Lemmas entire; pointed; awnless. Palea present; relatively long (in the first floret, and leathery), or conspicuous but relatively short (in the other florets, and membranous). Lodicules present; 3; free; glabrous. Stamens 6. Anthers not penicillate; without an apically prolonged connective. Ovary apically glabrous; without a conspicuous apical appendage. Styles basally fused. Stigmas 3.

Classification. Watson & Dallwitz (1994): Bambusoideae; Bambusodae; Bambuseae. Soreng et al. (2015): cf. Bambusoideae (as a synonym?). 4 species.

Distribution, phytogeography, ecology. Southern China.

Glycophytic.

References, etc. Morphological/taxonomic: Chia, Fung and Yang 1988.

Special comments. Cf. Indosasa, Schizostachyum. The ovary apex (not mentioned in the original, unsatisfactory Latin descriptions) is assumed to be unappendaged. The only other difference from Schizostachyum is the glabrous lodicules. Fruit data wanting. Anatomical data wanting.

Illustrations. • Monocladus saxatilis (as Bonia), with Indocalamus latifolius: Wu Zhengyi, Flora Yunnanica 9 (2003).

We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, geographical distribution, and classifications. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.

Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., Macfarlane, T.D., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The grass genera of the world: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval; including synonyms, morphology, anatomy, physiology, phytochemistry, cytology, classification, pathogens, world and local distribution, and references. Version: 15th June 2025. delta-intkey.com’.

Contents