Family: Poaceae |
David E. Hall and John W. Thieret Plants annual or perennial, if perennial, cespitose, rhizomatous, or stoloniferous. Culms 15-300 cm, erect, sometimes decumbent. Leaves not aromatic; mostly basal; auricles absent; ligules shortly membranous and ciliolate to ciliate or of hairs; blades often rough and glaucous. Inflorescences terminal panicles with elongate rachises and numerous branches, branches often naked for a considerable distance before terminating in a rame; rames often with only a single heterogamous triplet of 1 sessile and 2 pedicellate spikelets, sometimes with 1(-3) heterogamous sessile-pedicellate spikelet pairs below the terminal triplet, internodes without a translucent median groove; disarticulation oblique, below the sessile spikelets. Sessile spikelets terete or laterally compressed; callusesusually sharp, setose, hairs white or yellow to brown; glumes leathery to stiff, involute or folded and keeled above; lower glumes rounded or laterally compressed; lower florets sterile; upper florets bisexual, unawned or awned. Pedicels slender, not fused to the rame axes, without a translucent groove. Pedicellate spikelets dorsally compressed or absent, if present, lower florets sterile and unawned, upper florets sterile or staminate, awned or unawned. x = 5 or 10. Name from the Greek chrysos, golden, and pogon, beard, an allusion to the yellow, bearded callus. Cope, T.A. (1995) Chrysopogon. Flora of Somalia 4: 253-254 Plants tufted perennials. Leaves: ligules membranous or a line of hairs; blades linear, often harsh and glaucous. Inflorescences terminal pancles with whorls of slender branches terminating in a slender rame; rames reduced to a triad of 1 sessile and 2 pedicellate spikelets with linear pedicels. Sessile spikelets often pallid except for the rust-colored callus hairs, laterally compressed; calluses elongated, acute to sharply pointed; lower glumes cartilagnous, with rounded backs, sometimes with spinulose margins; upper glumes often awned; lower florets reduced to hyaline lemmas, 2-toothed or entire, with glabrous or pubescent awns; pedicellate spikelets purple, male or sterile, narrowly lanceolatre, awned or unawned. Caryopses narrowly ellpisoid. Chrysopogon includes about 50 species [POWO 2022] which grow in tropical and warm temperate regions of the Old Worl, mainly Asia and Australia. One species is native to the New World. Two species are known from Somalia, one of which, Chrysopogon plumulosus, also grows in Somaliland. Key to the species of Chrysopogon in Somaliland and Somalia. Global distribution of Chrysopogon. Note: GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution. |