Family: Poaceae |
Mary E. Barkworth Plants annual or perennial. Culms 10-350 cm, often decumbent, sometimes branched above the base. Leaves not aromatic; sheathsopen; ligules membranous, glabrous or ciliate, sides often higher than the middle. Inflorescences terminal, sometimes also axillary; inflorescence units with (1)2-many rames on a common peduncle; rames secund, ascending, members of a cluster sometimes so closely appressed as to appear as one; internodes stoutly linear to clavate. Spikelets in homogamous or heterogamous sessile-pedicellate or unequally pedicellate pairs; disarticulation in the rames, below both the sessile and pedicellate spikelets. Sessile spikelets dorsally compressed; glumes subequal; lower glumes 2-keeled, keels sometimes winged; upper glumes keeled, sometimes awned; lower florets staminate; upper florets bisexual, lemmas usually bifid and awned from the sinus. Pedicels fused to the rame axes, clavate or inflated, sometimes as wide as the spikelets. Pedicellate spikeletsmorphologically and sexually similar to the sessile spikelets or staminate and reduced. x = 9, 10. Name from the Greek ischion, hip or hip-joint socket. T.A. Cope (1995) Ischaemum. Flora of Somalia 4: 257-258 Plants usually perennial, sometimes annual. Leaves: ligules membranous. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, of paired rames [spikelet branches composed of successive sessile-pedicellate spikelet pairs]; internodes and pedicels club-shaped or inflated, pedicels often very short. Sessile spikelets dorsally compressed; calluses obtuse and inserted into the concave tops of the internodes; lower glumes chartaceous to coriaceous, concave to convex, 2-keeled or rounded, often rugose, sometimes winged; lower florets male, with lemmas an paleas; upper lemmas bifid, awned from between the teeth or unawned. Pedicellate spikelets as large as the sessile spikelets or much smaller, often asymmetrical. Caryopses oblong to lanceolate, dorsally compressed. Ischaemum includes about 85 species. They grow throughout the tropics but mostly in Asia. Only one species, Ischaemum afrum, grows in Somaliland and Somalia. Global distribution of Ischaemum. Note: GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution.
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