Indian Walnut

North Sinai, Mountainous Southern Sinai

Mediterranean region, eastwards to eastern Asia.

Sandy and Saline soils.

Perennial

Height: to 30 cm

A plant of damp or arid, often salt-impregnated places and waste land in cultivated areas.

While typical specimens of Aeluropus lagopoides and Aeluropus littoralis are easily distinguishable, the former with globular heads of hairy spikelets, the letter with a false spike of distant spikes of glabrous spikelets, troublesome intermediates do occur. Bor (in Rech. f., Fl. Iran. 70: 420. 1970) suggested that hybridisation may be responsible for these intermediates.

Rhizomatous perennial; culms up to 30 cm high, erect or creeping at the base. Leaf-blades narrow, rounded at the base, up to 5 cm long and 2 mm wide, rigid, pungent, glabrous or with tubercle-based hairs, margins scabrid. Panicle spiciform, interrupted, the spikelets densely packed on rhachides distinctly spaced on one side of the main axis, up to 10 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm wide, Spikelets 6-9-flowered, elliptic, 3-3.5 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide. Glumes subequal, 1.25-1.5 mm long, glabrous, the lower 1-3-nerved, narrower than the upper, the upper 5-nerved; lemmas broadly elliptic, apiculate, 9-nerved, 1.7-2.5 mm long, glabrous or sparsely hairy; anthers 0.75-1 mm long.

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan); North Africa and the Mediterranean region, through the Middle East to Central Asia, northern China and Mongolia.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: April-October.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, Stolons or runners present, Basal sheaths fibrous, old leaves persistent at base of plant, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems solitary, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath or blade keeled, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Leaf blades glaucous, blue-green, or grey, or with white glands, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches 1-sided, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets with 8-40 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets distichously arranged, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Spikelets not disarticulating, or tardy, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 1 nerved, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilag inous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 8-15 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Palea keels winged, scabrous, or ciliate, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.