''Agnesia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of herbaceous

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

in the

grass family Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

. It is named in honor of agrostologist (botanical specialist in the area of grasses) Mary Agnes Chase (1869-1963). The only known species is ''Agnesia lancifolia'', native to lowland tropical rainforests of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

. ''Agnesia lancifolia'' is perennial herb with 7-10 stems per clump, each up to 50 cm tall. Lower leaves lacking blades or with blades less than 5 mm long; upper leaves with blades up to 16 cm long. Each stem has 1-6 racemes at the tips of the culm or from the axils of the upper leaves, pistillate (female) and

staminate The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

(male) flowers in different spikelets on the same plant.Zuloaga, F. O. & E. J. Judziewicz. 1993. ''Agnesia'', a new genus of Amazonian herbaceous bamboos (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Olyreae). Novon 3(3): 306–309.
/ref>Mez, Carl Christian 1917. Novae species panicearum. Notizblatt des Botanischen Gartens und Museums zu Berlin-Dahlem 7(63): 45-78.
/ref>

References

Bambusoideae genera Monotypic Poaceae genera Flora of the Amazon Bambusoideae {{Bamboo-stub

See also

References