Family: Poaceae |
Mary E. Barkworth Plants perennial; usually strongly rhizomatous or stoloniferous, rhizomes and stolons with persistent sheaths. Culms 5-40 cm, prostrate to erect, solitary or not; internodes numerous, short. Sheaths overlapping; ligules of hairs; blades usually stiffly spreading, flat or convolute below, folded distally, apices often cartilaginous and sharp. Inflorescences terminal, dense panicles of non-disarticulating spikelike branches racemosely arranged on elongate rachises, exceeding the upper leaves; branches 2.5-5 mm wide, axes triquetrous, spikelets closely packed, subsessile, in 2 rows. Spikelets bisexual, dorsally compressed, with 2-14 florets. Glumes unequal, exceeded by the florets, keeled; lower glumes 1-5(7)-veined; upper glumes 3-9-veined; lemmas 7-11-veined, mucronate, mucros 0.1-0.3 mm; lodicules 2;anthers 3, 0.8-1.6 mm; style branches 2. Caryopses ovoid-ellipsoid; hila punctate, basal; embryos about 1/2 as long as the caryopses. x = 10. Name from the Greek aeluros, cat, and pus, leg, because the shape of the culms and panicles supposedly suggests a cat's leg. Aeluropus is a genus of five species that extends from Portugal to China and northern India. The species usually form dense stands and are a good source of fodder and hay in Russia, growing in areas where more valuable grasses cannot (Tzvelev 1976). One species has been cultivated experimentally in the United States. T.A. Cope (1993) Poaceae Flora of Somalia 4: 148-270 Plants stolonierous perennials. Ligules composed of a very short membrane fringed with hairs. Inflorescences capitate to spikelike, comprising short, dense branches appressed tp a central axis or a single, dense, terminal ovoid raceme. Spikelets with several florets; disarticulation below each floret; glumes shorter than the spikelets, the lower with 1-3 veins, the upper with 5-7 veins; lemmas rounded on the back, chartaceous, strongly 9-11-veined, glabrous or hairy on the margins, entire or emarginate, apiculate. Caryopses ellipsoid. Aeluropus includes 3 or 4 species. They are native from Mauritana and the Medieterranean region to northern China and southwards to Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. Only one species, Aeluropus lagopoides, is known from Somaliland. None are known from Somalia. |