Eremocaulon Soderstrom & Londoño (1987: 37)

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 : 107

Eremocaulon Soderstrom & Londoño (1987: 37) .

TYPE:— Eremocaulon aureofimbriatum Soderstrom & Londoño (1987: 37) .

Plants cespitose. Culms homomorphic, erect below, arching and clambering above, often supported by trees, 2.5–20 m tall, infra- and supranodal bands of trichomes usually absent [present in E. capitatum (Trinius 1835: 626) Londoño in Londoño & Clark (2002: 714)]. Branch complement with one dominant and smaller secondary branches, 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. Foliage leaf sheaths with fimbriae at the apex or not, translucent swelling absent, outer ligule present, blades narrowly triangular, ovate-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, midnerve prominent. Synflorescences terminal to leafy, indeterminate, 1–15 pseudospikelets per coflorescence, coflorescences either with one to few pseudospikelets and open or with several to many pseudospikelets and congested to capitate, each coflorescence and paraclade or pseudospikelet with one subtending bract; pseudospikelets sessile, bisexual, glumes absent, comprising 1 prophyll, 0–4 gemmiparous bracts, with 1–17 fertile anthecium, smooth, and with 1–4 terminal rudimentary anthecium. Fruit a basic caryopsis, hilum linear, as long as the caryopsis.

Eremocaulon is a woody bamboo genus endemic to Brazil ( Londoño & Clark 2002, Kellogg 2015, Jesus-Costa et al. 2018). It is characterized by its branch complement with one dominant and smaller secondary branches, without thorns, infra- and supranodal bands of trichomes absent (present in E. capitatum ), culm leaves with reflexed blades, narrower than the sheath, foliage leaves with midnerve prominent and synflorescences composed of pseudospikelets ( Londoño & Clark 2002). The genus has five species in the Amazon, Cerrado and Mata Atlântica domains ( Lopes-Neto et al. 2020). In the Serra do Cachimbo, the genus is represented by one species.