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VULPIA Gmel.
Plants hermaphroditic, caespitose, annual. Culms erect or decumbent, glabrous; internodes hollow or solid, terete. Leaves
basal or cauline, not distichous; sheaths terete, margins open; auricles absent; ligules membranous; blades flat or involute
(filiform). Panicles or racemes, primary branches spreading or ascending or appressed. Spikelets
solitary, laterally compressed; disarticulation above glumes, mucronate or awned, pedicellate; florets 3-15,
reduced floret at apex, callus glabrous; glumes 2, first 1-veined and second 3-veined, unequal, shorter than first floret,
glabrous, mucronate or awned; lemmas inconspicuously 5-veined, chartaceous, glabrous or scabrous, apex entire, mucronate
or awned from apex, awns straight; paleas 2-veined, awnless, glabrous. Stamens 1 (rarely 2-3); anthers pale
yellow. Caryopses cylindrical. Base chromosome number x=7.
A genus of about 30 weedy species from temperate regions. Commonly these species occur in mesic to
xeric habitats. These species are not important as livestock forage.
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