Description: Caespitose annuals.
Ligule with a ciliate rim; blade rolled in bud.
Inflorescence a primary axis of variable length with few–many spike-like racemes arranged racemosely; racemes 1-sided, rachis flattened or 3-angled, often hairy. Spikelets closely appressed, pedicellate, solitary. Florets 2, the upper bisexual, the lower sterile or male. Glumes unequal, the lower shorter, adaxial, 1-nerved; the upper 5-nerved. Lower lemma and upper glume equal, similar; lower lemma 5-nerved; upper lemma hardened, abaxial, faintly 5-nerved, sometimes mucronate, smooth or wrinkled on the back, margins involute, firmly holding the palea. Paleas 2, the lower slightly shorter than its lemma, the upper as long as its lemma, hardened, 2-keeled, tip tucked within the lemma.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 3 species, Eastern Hemisphere. Australia: 1 species (naturalised).
Text by Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B. & Wheeler, D.J.B.
Taxon concept: Grasses of New South Wales, Fourth Edition (2008).
|
