Melica parodiana Torres

Echeverría, María L., Alonso, Sara I. & Comparatore, Viviana M., 2017, Survey of the vascular plants of Sierra Chica, the untouched area of the Paititi Natural Reserve (southeastern Tandilia mountain range, Buenos Aires province, Argentina), Check List 13 (6), pp. 1003-1036 : 1019

Melica parodiana Torres

Figure 17

Melica parodiana Torres (1968) : 202 — Cabrera (1970): 305; Zuloaga et

al. (2012b): 94; Tropicos (2017).

Cryptophyte, native with distribution in the Southern Cone Region of South America. Vulnerable, reasons unknown ( Delucchi 2006).

Characteristics. Perennial, caespitose species, with erect to slightly stretched culms, up to 30 to 50 cm tall, with roots on basal nodes. Leaves parallel-veined, folded to convolute, green, pubescent, up to 15 cm long, with retrorse hairs and membranous ligule. Inflorescence: a linear, loose panicle with white, compressed, multiflorous spikelets; glumes unequal; lemma papery with retrorse hairs and palea with glabrous lower surface. Fruit: an elliptic caryopsis.

Comments. This is a frequent species in the study area. It grows in shallow to moderately deep soils and in rock cracks on summits and on rocky and grassy slopes. It is similar to M. rigida , which has also been found in the Paititi Reserve, but M. rigida has glabrous abaxial leaf surface.