| # The grass genera of the world |

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

### Ferrocalamus Hsueh & P. C. Keng

~ Indocalamus

Habit, vegetative morphology. Shrubby perennial; rhizomatous and caespitose. Culms 200–300 cm high; to 8–12 cm in diameter; cylindrical; scandent to not scandent; self-supporting, or scrambling; branched above. Buds from which the primary culm branches arise presumably 1. Primary branches 1 (below), or 3–5 (above, erect, almost as thick as the culm). The branching suffrutescent. Culm nodes prominent, hairy (via a ring of white hairs beneath). Culm leaf sheaths present; deciduous, or persistent; not conspicuously auriculate. Culm leaves with conspicuous blades. Culm leaf blades linear, or lanceolate. Culm internodes hollow. Erect, pluricaespitose. Rhizomes elongated, leptomorph. Leaves auriculate to non-auriculate; with auricular setae. Leaf blades broad; about 32 cm long, 80 mm wide; pseudopetiolate; with 20–24 secondary veins; cross veined. Ligule present; short. Contra-ligule absent.

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

Inflorescence. Inflorescence determinate; without pseudospikelets; many spikeleted; paniculate (about 6 cm long, on leafy flowering branches); open; espatheate (?); not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs (?). Spikelets solitary; not secund; pedicellate.

Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets morphologically ‘conventional’ to unconventional; 15–20 mm long; slender, oblong; not noticeably compressed (subterete); disarticulating above the glumes; disarticulating between the florets. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret; the rachilla extension with incomplete florets.

Glumes persistent, two; shorter than the spikelets; blunt, not pointed; non-carinate; oblong, chartaceous, similar. Lower glume 16–24 nerved. Upper glume 16–24 nerved. Spikelets with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets distal to the female-fertile florets. The distal incomplete florets 1; merely underdeveloped; awnless.

Female-fertile florets 2–3 (according to Clayton et al., to 10 according to Flora of China ...). Lemmas oblong; similar in texture to the glumes to decidedly firmer than the glumes (chartaceous or leathery); non-carinate; with obscure transverse venation, 22 nerved. Palea present; relatively long (longer than the lemma); apically notched (emarginate). Lodicules present; 3. Stamens 3; with free filaments. Ovary apically glabrous. Styles short. Stigmas plumose, 2.

Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit ovoid or subglobose. Pericarp fleshy; free, or fused (with no hardened endocarp). Seed ‘non-endospermic’.

Cytology. 2n = 48.

Classification. Watson & Dallwitz (1994): genus not recognised. Soreng et al. (2015): Bambusoideae; Arundinarodae; Arundinarieae; Arundinariinae. 2 species (F. fibrillosus and F. strictus (syn. F. rimosivaginus, based on non-flowering material)).

Distribution, phytogeography, ecology. Tropical Asia, Indochina.

Economic aspects. Culms formerly used for making arrows.

Special comments. The morphological descriptions seen are impossible to reconcile re. number of female-fertile florets, etc. Anatomical data wanting.

Illustrations. • Ferrocalamus strictus: 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’.

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