| # The grass genera of the world |

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

### Garnotia Brongn.

Named for Prosper Garnot (1794–1838), French naval surgeon and naturalist.

Type species: Type: G. stricta Brongn.

Including Berghausia Endl., Miquelia Arn. & Nees

Habit, vegetative morphology. Annual (rarely), or perennial; rhizomatous, or caespitose (mostly), or decumbent. Culms where recorded, sparsely branched above, or unbranched above. The branching simple. Culm nodes hairy (usually), or glabrous. Culm internodes solid, or hollow. Leaves mostly basal, or not basally aggregated; non-auriculate. Leaf blades narrow; not pseudopetiolate; without cross venation; disarticulating from the sheaths, or persistent. Ligule present; a fringed membrane; short.

Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, all with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets; exposed-cleistogamous, or chasmogamous; with hidden cleistogenes, or without hidden cleistogenes. The hidden cleistogenes (when present) in the leaf sheaths (in concealed, contracted panicles).

Inflorescence. Inflorescence of spicate main branches, or paniculate; open, or contracted; non-digitate; espatheate; not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs. Spikelet-bearing axes persistent. Spikelets solitary (rarely), or in triplets (rarely), or paired; not secund; pedicellate; consistently in ‘long-and-short’ combinations, or not in distinct ‘long-and-short’ combinations; unequally pedicellate in each combination. The ‘shorter’ spikelets hermaphrodite. The ‘longer’ spikelets hermaphrodite.

Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 2–5 mm long (?); not noticeably compressed to compressed dorsiventrally; falling with the glumes. Rachilla terminated by a female-fertile floret. Hairy callus present, or absent.

Glumes two; relatively large (membranous); more or less equal (the G1 usually slightly longer than the G2); about equalling the spikelets; long relative to the adjacent lemmas; awned, or awnless; very dissimilar (the G1 more or less convex, the G2 flattened and often furrowed on the back). Lower glume convex on the back; 3–5 nerved. Upper glume 3–5 nerved. Spikelets with female-fertile florets only; without proximal incomplete florets.

Female-fertile florets 1. Lemmas decidedly firmer than the glumes (cartilaginous); not becoming indurated; entire, or incised; when incised, 2 lobed; when incised, not deeply cleft (shortly bidentate or bisetaceous); awnless (rarely), or mucronate (rarely), or awned (usually). Awns when present, 1; from a sinus, or apical; non-geniculate, or geniculate; much shorter than the body of the lemma to much longer than the body of the lemma. Lemmas hairless; glabrous; non-carinate (convex); without a germination flap; 3–5 nerved. Palea present; relatively long (with ciliate margins, and auricles near the base); 2-nerved. Lodicules present; 2; free; fleshy; ciliate, or glabrous. Stamens 3. Anthers not penicillate. Ovary apically glabrous. Styles free to their bases. Stigmas 2.

Fruit, embryo and seedling. Hilum short (round). Embryo large, or small.

Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Costal/intercostal zonation conspicuous. Papillae absent. Long-cells similar in shape costally and intercostally, or markedly different in shape costally and intercostally (with the costals longer and narrower); of similar wall thickness costally and intercostally. Mid-intercostal long-cells rectangular (narrow); having markedly sinuous walls. Microhairs present; panicoid-type; 48–98 microns long; 9–11.4 microns wide at the septum. Microhair total length/width at septum 7.4–10.2. Microhair apical cells 24–48 microns long. Microhair apical cell/total length ratio 0.4–0.52. Stomata common; 40–42 microns long. Subsidiaries triangular. Guard-cells overlapping to flush with the interstomatals. Intercostal short-cells common; in cork/silica-cell pairs; silicified. Costal short-cells conspicuously in long rows, or predominantly paired, or neither distinctly grouped into long rows nor predominantly paired. Costal silica bodies ‘panicoid-type’ (mostly), or crescentic, or saddle shaped (rarely); when panicoid, cross shaped to dumb-bell shaped.

Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. C4. The anatomical organization conventional, or unconventional. Organization of PCR tissue when unconventional, Arundinella type. XyMS–. PCR sheath outlines uneven. PCR sheath extensions absent. Mesophyll with non-radiate chlorenchyma; exhibiting ‘circular cells’, or without ‘circular cells’. Leaf blade with distinct, prominent adaxial ribs, or adaxially flat; with the ribs more or less constant in size. Midrib conspicuous; having a conventional arc of bundles; with colourless mesophyll adaxially, or without colourless mesophyll adaxially. Bulliforms present in discrete, regular adaxial groups; in simple fans. Many of the smallest vascular bundles unaccompanied by sclerenchyma. Combined sclerenchyma girders present; forming ‘figures’, or nowhere forming ‘figures’. Sclerenchyma all associated with vascular bundles.

Phytochemistry. Leaves without flavonoid sulphates (1 species).

Cytology. 2n = 20.

Classification. Watson & Dallwitz (1994): Panicoideae; Panicodae; Arundinelleae. Soreng et al. (2015): Panicoideae; Andropogonodae; Arundinelleae. 30 species.

Distribution, phytogeography, ecology. Eastern Asia, Northeast Australia, Pacific.

Mesophytic. Light woodland and moist rocky slopes.

References, etc. Morphological/taxonomic: Gould 1973. Leaf anatomical: Metcalfe 1960; studied by us - G. stricta Brongn.

Illustrations. • Garnotia polypogonoides: Hook. Ic. Pl. 15 (1854). • Garnotia stricta, abaxial epidermis of leaf blade: this project. • Garnotia stricta, leaf blade T.S. showing isolated PCR cells: this project. Garnotia stricta. Isolated PCR cell. • Garnotia patula: Le chang zhi wu zhi (2005).

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’.

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