''Triraphis devia'' is a species of grass

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

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 ...

, the only member of its genus native to the Western Hemisphere. Of the 7 other recognized species, 6 are from Africa,1 from Australia.The Plant List
/ref> Three populations of ''Triraphis devia'' has been reported, all from the State of

Goiás Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goiânia. ...

. One of these lies inside

Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional da Chapada dos Veadeiros) is a national park of Brazil located in the state of Goiás, on the top of an ancient plateau with an estimated age of 1.8 billion years. The park was created o ...

. ''Triraphis devia'' is a perennial herb with an unbranched flowering stalk bearing a

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is ...

less than 8 cm long. These characters alone are enough to distinguish the species from others in the genus. Internal anatomy is consistent with the likelihood that the plant has Krantz anatomy. In other words, this is probably a C₄ plant, having a

photosynthetic Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored in ...

metabolism Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run c ...

improving efficiency in hot, sunlit environments.Hattersley, PW,. & L Watson. 1976. C₄ grasses: an anatomical criterion for determining between NADP-Malic enzyme species and PCK or NAD-Malic enzyme species. Australian Journal of Botany 24:297-308

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15511037 Chloridoideae Endemic flora of Brazil Grasses of Brazil Flora of Goiás