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ANTHAENANTIA Beauv. Silkyscale
Plants caespitose or rhizomatous, perennial. Culms erect (stiff), glabrous; internodes solid, terete. Leaves
not differentiated into two kinds (basal rosette absent), basal and cauline, not distinctly distichous; sheaths
terete; ligules a ciliate membrane; blades flat. Panicles narrow or loosely contracted; primary branches
ascending (secondary branches spreading), terminating in a spikelet; bristles absent below spikelets.
Spikelets solitary; not embedded in branch, laterally compressed or dorsiventrally compressed;
disarticulation below spikelets; florets 2; lower sterile and staminate or without stamen
(villous); upper fertile, more than eight tenths lower floret length; first glumes absent, not fused with
callus; second glumes present (villous); 0.9-1 times spikelet length, not saccate, 5-veined; lemmas of
upper florets indurate or cartilaginous, smooth, dark brown, glabrous, margin involute, not
differentiated at apex, awnless; palea of upper florets present. Stamens 3; anthers light brown. Base
chromosome number x=10.
A North American genus of two species. Anthaenantia has a spikelet morphology that is similar to
Digitaria. One species is common in pine barrens of the southeastern United States and the other in wet or boggy
habitats of the same area. These species are occasional in East Texas.
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