Family: Poaceae |
J.K Wipff Plants annual or perennial. Culms 10-100 cm, weak, trailing on the ground, branching. Leaves cauline; ligules membranous and ciliate, or of hairs; blades lanceolate. Inflorescences terminal, panicles of unilateral branches, spikelets paired (but the first spikelet sometimes reduced), rachises and branches terminating in a spikelet; branches 0.1-7 cm, persistent; disarticulation below the glumes. Spikelets dorsally compressed, not sunken into the rachis, lacking subtending bristles, with 2 florets. Lower glumes awned; upper glumes not ciliate on the margins, unawned or with awns shorter than those of the lower glumes, awns of both glumes often becoming viscid; lower florets sterile or staminate; lower lemmas acute to shortly awned; lower paleas present or absent; upper florets bisexual; upper lemmas papery to leathery, glabrous, smooth, unawned, white or yellow at maturity; upper paleas similar to the upper lemmas. x = 9. Name from the Greek hoplismenos, armed, alluding to the awned spikelets. The awns of some species of Oplismenus become viscid at maturity, aiding in fruit dispersal (Scholz 1981; Davidse 1987). SELECTED REFERENCES Chen, SL. and S.M. Phillips. 2006. Oplismenus. Pp. 501-504 in ZY. Wu, P.H. Raven and DY Hong (eds).Poaceae, Flora of China vol. 22. Science Press and Missouri Botanical Garden Press; Davey, J.C. and W.D. Clayton. 1977. Some multiple discriminant function studies on Oplismenus. Kew Bull. 33:147-157; Davidse, G. 1987. Fruit dispersal in Poaceae. Pp. 143-155 in T.R. Soderstrom, K.W. Hilu, C.S. Campbell, and M.E. Barkworth (eds.). Grass Systematics and Evolution. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. 473 pp.; Davis, S. B., W. S. Judd, and K. D. Perkins. 2006. Noteworthy collection in Florida. Castanea 71: 333–334; McVaugh, R. 1983. Flora Novo-Galiciana. A descriptive account of the vascular plants of western Mexico. Gramineae 14:1–436. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Peterson, P.M., E.E. Terrell, E.C. Uebel, C.A. Davis, H. Scholz, and R.J. Soreng. 1999. Oplismenus hirtellus subspecies undulatifolius, a new record for North America. Castanea 64:201-202; Scholz, U. 1981. Monographie der Gattung Oplismenus (Gramineae). Phanerog. Monogr. Tomus XIII. J. Cramer, Vaduz, Germany. 217 pp. English translation being posted. |