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Koeleria glomerata

Kunth (1834)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Monocots Order: Poales Family: Poaceae Genus: Koeleria

he‘upueo [heupueo], mountain pili, pili uka

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Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Perennials.

Stems: Culms densely tufted, 4–9 dm tall, erect, robust, glabrous or pubescent.

Roots: Fibrous root system.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades coriaceous, 10–25 cm long, 2–4(–6) mm wide, flat, or usually involute toward the apex. Apex stiff, subulate. Surfaces glabrous or pubescent. Margins entire. Veins parallel. Sheaths 4–12 cm long, usually loosely clasping the culm, especially the lower ones, glabrous to soft pubescent; ligule 3–5 mm long, membranous, usually lacerate. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in panicles erect, spikelike, sometimes interrupted or rather loose, 12–20 cm long, ca. 1 cm in diameter. spikelets 2–3–flowered, 4–6 mm long, compressed, scabrous to villous; glumes ca. 5 mm long, apex acuminate, first glume narrow, 0.7–1 mm wide from keel to margin, second glume twice as wide as first glume; lemmas 4–5 mm long, indistinctly 5–nerved, rather firm, somewhat keeled, usually dorsally awned from below the entire or slightly bifid apex, the awn usually bent, 2–5 mm long; palea 4–5 mm long, membranous, apex acuminate. Stamens 3. Ovary superior.

Fruit: Caryopsis reddish brown; cylindrical; 2.5–3 mm long; apex attenuate.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Arid cinder fields; subalpine shrubland and grassland; and in open bogs.

Elevation Range: 750–4,090 m.

Historical Distribution

Images

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Uses and Culture

USES

  • Yes

Natural History

Statewide Status

Endemic

Island Status

Maui Endemic
Hawai'i Endemic

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Bibliography

Name Published In: R?vis. Gramin. 3: t. 219 (1834)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:1602 (L, M, H [as Trisetum glomeratum]), 1557 (H [as Koeleria nitida]); Herbst & Clayton 1998:29 (Syn. K. nitida = K. macrantha), 37 (remove L [re-IDed as K. inaequalis (as T. inaequale)]); Faccenda 2025b:117 (Syn. T. glomeratum, K. macrantha misapplied = K. glomerata)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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