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Charles M. Allen Plants annual or perennial. Culms to 100 cm, not branching above the base. Auricles absent; ligules membranous and ciliate or of hairs. Inflorescencespanicles of racemosely arranged, spikelike branches, branches sometimes highly reduced, each panicle appearing spikelike; branches 1-sided, terminating in a more or less inconspicuous bristle, bristles 2.5-4 mm; disarticulation beneath the spikelets. Spikelets subsessile, in 2 rows on 1 side of the branches, lacking subtending bristles, dorsally compressed, with 2 florets, upper glumes and upper florets appressed to the branch axes. Glumes membranous; lower glumes much shorter than the spikelets; upper glumes subequal to the upper florets; lower florets sterile or staminate; lower lemmas similar to the upper glumes in size and texture; upper florets bisexual; upper lemmas indurate, rugose, unawned, yellow or brown; upper paleas similar to their lemmas;anthers 3. x = 9. The name is a diminutive of Paspalum. T.A. Cope (1995) Paspalidium. Flora of Somalia 4: 234-235. Plants annual or perennial, often aquatic. Leaves; ligules a line of hairs; lbades linear. Infloresecences elongate panicles of several to many short, spikelike branches attached to a common axis; branches more or less appressed to shallow hollows in the central axis; branch axes 3-sides or winged, usually ending in a point, bearing single spikelets in 2 neat row. Spikelets ovate, dorsally compressed, glabrous; lower glumes much shorter than the spikelets; upper glumes shorter than to almost equalling the upper florets; lower florets male or sterile; upper lemmas crustaceous, acute, their margins inrolled and clasping the edges of the paleas; upper paleas acute, the tips slightly reflexteed. Caryopses elliptic, dorsally compressed. Paspalidium includes about 40 species. They are native thought the tropics. There are two species in Somaliland and Somalia. The genus is included in Setaria by POWO (2022) and the Catalogue of Life (2022), part of an interpretation that greatly expands that genus. It is recognized here because there is some evidence suggesting it is monophyletic and basal, not embeeded in, the enlarged genus. There are advantages to recognizing morphologically distinct clades at their traditional level. In this instance, it helps highlight the distinct morphology and the tendency of its members to grow in wet to damp habitats, but it means that GBIF cannot readily be used to generate a map of its global distribution. To obtain one, it would be necessary to search for all the included species using their names in Setaria. Key to the species of Paspalidium in Somaliland and Somalia. |