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SETARIA P. Beauv. Bristlegrass
Plants caespitose or with short rhizomes, annual or perennial. Culm erect or ascending or geniculate, glabrous
to scabrous; internodes solid or hollow, terete. Leaves not distinctly differentiated into two kinds (no basal
rosette); basal and cauline, not distinctly distichous; sheaths terete; ligules a ciliate membrane, flat or
involute. Panicles contracted, primary branches appressed, terminating in a bristle; bristles
subtending some or all spikelets, terete, antrorsely and retrorsely barbed. Spikelets solitary,
not embedded in branch, abaxial, planoconvex or terete; disarticulation below spikelets; florets 2; lower
florets sterile and staminate or without stamens; upper florets fertile, equal to lower floret
length; first glumes present, not fused with callus, encircling spikelet base, awnless; second glumes
present, one third to equal spikelet length, not saccate, 3-9-veined; lemma of upper florets indurate,
rugose, yellow, glabrous, margins involute, not differentiated at apex, awnless; palea of upper
florets present. Stamens 3; anthers brown or yellow. Base chromosome number x=9,10.
A tropical or subtropical genus of about 100 species.
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