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ENNEAPOGON Desv. ex. Beauv.
Plants hermaphroditic, caespitose, perennial. Culms erect to ascending, pubescent (at least nodes); internodes hollow, terete.
Leaves cauline, not conspicuously distichous; sheaths terete, margins open; auricles present or absent; ligules a line of hairs;
blades folded or involute, not pungent, not attenuate. Panicles contracted; primary branches terminating in a spikelet.
Cleistogamous spikelets (highly modified) in basal sheaths. Spikelets solitary or paired, laterally compressed or dorsiventrally
compressed, awned, subsessile or pedicellate; pedicels without glands; disarticulation above glumes; florets 3
(1 fertile, 2 sterile), callus pubescent; reduced florets at apex; glumes (first 5-7-veined, second 3-4-veined) unequal,
longer than first floret, glabrous or hairy; lemmas 9-veined, chartaceous, apex rounded and cleft into 9 divisions
each extend to awns, veins hairy; awns 9 (equal and plumose); paleas 2-veined, awnless, keels hairy.
Stamen 3; anthers yellow. Caryopses ovoid dorsally compressed to elliptical, brown. Base chromosome number x=10.
A genus of about 35 species mostly from Australia, Africa, and Asia the species are adapted to warm
regions. Our species may be frequent on dry, open slopes.
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