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MELINIS P. Beauv.
Plants caespitose or rhizomatous or stoloniferous, annual or perennial (ours.) Culms erect or ascending or
geniculate, nodes hairy; internodes solid, terete. Leaves not differentiated into two kinds (basal rosette
absent), cauline, not distinctly distichous; sheaths terete; ligules a line of hairs; blades flat or folded.
Panicles open to narrow; primary branches spreading to ascending (secondary branches
spreading), terminating in a spikelet; bristles (not hairs) absent below spikelets. Spikelets solitary,
not embedded in branch, laterally compressed; disarticulation below spikelets; florets 2; lower
florets sterile, staminate or without stamens; upper florets fertile one half to three fourths
lower floret length; first glumes present (minute), not fused with callus, not encircling spikelet base,
awnless; second glumes present, more or less spikelet length, not saccate, 5- or 7-veined; lemma of upper
florets membranous or chartaceous, smooth, white, glabrous, margins flat, not differentiated at apex,
awnless; palea of upper florets present. Stamens 3; anthers tan. Base chromosome number x=9.
A tropical or subtropical genus of about 25 species. Melinis is closely related to or synonymous with
Rhynchelytrum. Here they are treated as synonymous in the genus Melinis. These taxa include disturbance species
of roadside habitats.
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