|
STENOTAPHRUM Trin.
Plants stoloniferous, annual or perennial (ours). Culms mat forming or decumbent or geniculate, glabrous;
internodes solid, flattened. Leaves not differentiated into two kinds (basal rosette absent), cauline, not
distinctly distichous; sheaths with compressed keels; ligules a ciliate membrane; blades flat (thick). Spicate
raceme or panicle; rachis or central axis thickened (broad and flattened), terminating in bare point;
disarticulation at nodes of spicate raceme or panicle; bristles absent below glumes. Spikelets solitary
or in pairs or ternate, partially embedded or not embedded in branch, abaxial, dorsiventrally
compressed; florets 2; lower florets sterile and staminate or without stamens; upper florets fertile
, nearly lower floret length; first glumes present, not fused with callus, not encircling spikelet base,
awnless; second glumes present, nearly spikelet length, not saccate, 3-7-veined; lemma of upper florets
chartaceous, smooth, yellow, glabrous, margins flat or involute, 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 seven species.
|
