Spikelets with linear hairs with a dilated and
mucronate apex mixed with long, yellowish, setiform hairs D.
The species is very similar to Meltripata Bolivar, 1923 but differs by: head distinctly elevated above level of pronotum and frontal ridge barely projecting, and female subgenital plate quadrate with a
mucronate projection on apical margin.
Leaves alternate, spiral or distichous; petiolate or subsessile, presence of pulvinus; extrafloral nectaries absent or present, convex, sessile or stipitate, located between the pairs of leaflets or on the petiole; leaflets 1-many pairs, papyraceous to coriaceous, elliptic to oblong, lanceolate to obovate, apex acuminate, rounded to
mucronate, base oblique.
Leaves oblong, tapering gradually in the upper quarter length into an acute,
mucronate apex.
The length of the mucro in
mucronate glumes usually decreases towards the top of the spikelet (Goetghebeur, 1998).
Involucral bracts
mucronate, hairless, obtuse, narrowly thin-margined.
Native perennial grasses recorded included (in order of decreasing abundance): Aristida purpurpea (purple threeawn); Leptochloa panacea (
mucronate sprangletop); Muhlenbergia porteri (bush muhly); Bouteloua rothrockii (Rothrock's grama); Dasyochloa pulchella (low woolygrass); Heteropogon contortus (tanglehead); Pleuraphis rigida (big galleta); Aristida ternipes (spidergrass); Bothriochloa barbinodis (cane bluestem); Bouteloua repens (slender grama); Setaria vulpiseta (plains bristlegrass); and Tridens muticus (slim tridens).
Description: Marcescent tree to 15 m tall; leaf ovoid-lanceolate, to oblong/lanceolate 0,8-5(5,8) x 0,6-1,4(1,8) cm, with narrow lamina, short and denticulate to serrate,
mucronate. Glaucous abaxial surface, with a white-greyish pubescence, resultant from high density of stellate, fasciculate and multi-stellate trichomes, adpressed, with short and long rays, the long rays 12-17(19) [micron]m long, the short ones with (<20 [micron]m long), with more than 8 filaments (8-15).
The fruit is a small many-seeded ovoid or subglobulous, slightly
mucronate pink berry of the size and shape of a cherry, becoming blackish when dry and eaten by birds.
Pleurocystidia (12-)15-20(-24)(-28) x (3-)4-6(-8)(-10)(-12) [micro]m, common, but difficult to find, hyaline, bottle shaped, subfusiform, subcylindric or subventricose, with a wide or narrow base,
mucronate or with a short to very long neck up to 28 [micro]m long., sometimes sublageniform, irregularly branched.