Merostachys Sprengel (1824: 132)

Lopes-Neto, Raimundo Balieiro & Viana, Pedro Lage, 2022, Flora of the Serra do Cachimbo (Eastern Amazon, Brazil): Bambusoideae (Poaceae), including the description of two new species, Phytotaxa 550 (2), pp. 99-129 : 111-112

Merostachys Sprengel (1824: 132) .

TYPE:— Merostachys speciosa Sprengel (1824: 249) .

Plants cespitose. Culms homomorphic, scandent at maturity, often drooping from trees, 2–20 m tall, infra- and supranodal bands of trichomes absent or present. Branch complement apsidate (fan-shaped), few to many branches, sometimes branches branched, without thorns. Culm leaves and foliage leaves clearly distinct. Culm leaves not clearly differentiated along the culm, with reflexed blades, narrower than the sheath summit, sheath fimbriae present, not fused. Foliage leaf sheaths with fimbriae at the apex or not, translucent swelling absent, outer ligule present, blades lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, midnerve not prominent. Synflorescences a terminal raceme, pectinate; spikelets sessile or on short pedicels, bisexual, glumes 2, anthecium smooth (as far as known), the apex of rachilla extension bearing a rudimentary anthecium. Fruit a nucoid caryopsis, hilum conspicuous or not.

Merostachys is a scandent woody bamboo genus with the branch complement apsidate, culm leaves with reflexed blades, narrower than the sheath summit, sheath fimbriae present and free, synflorescences terminal and racemose, pectinate and the caryopsis nucoid ( McClure 1973, Vinicius-Silva et al. 2018). The genus has 57 species in Central and South America ( Kellogg 2015, Vinícius-Silva et al. 2018, 2021a). In Brazil, 50 species occur in Amazon, Cerrado and Mata Atlântica domains ( Vinícius-Silva et al. 2020, 2021b, 2021c). In the Serra do Cachimbo, it is represented by one species, a new taxon here described.