Family: Poaceae |
J.K Wipff Plants perennial or annual; cespitose or tufted. Culms 4-65 cm, erect, slender. Leaves linear, flat, usually becoming folded and filiform; ligulesmembranous, ciliate. Inflorescences terminal, unilateral linear spikes or spikelike racemes, with 1 spikelet per node, exceeding the leaves; rachises visible, not concealed by the spikelets. Spikelets appressed, in 2 rows along 1 side of the rachises, with 3-20 bisexual florets, distal florets sterile or staminate; disarticulation above the glumes and between the florets. Glumes unequal, 1(3)-veined; lemmas 1-3-veined, backs slightly keeled or rounded, apices lobed or bifid, mucronate or awned from between the lobes, lateral veins sometimes also excurrent, awns usually straight; anthers 1-3. x = 10. Name from the Greek treis, three, and pogon, beard, alluding to the hairs at the bases of the three lemma veins found in many of its species. Tripogon is a genus of approximately 30 species, most of which are native to the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere, especially Africa and India, but with one, Tripogon spicatus, native to the Western Hemisphere. T.A. Cope (1995) Tripogon. Flora of Somalia 4: 171-172. Plants perennial. Leaves: ligules short, ciliate membranes. Inflorescences terminal, unilateral spikes or spikelike racemes. Spikelets with 2-several florets, laterally compressed, broadside to the central axis, linear to elliptic, both glumes well developed, the upper sometimes 3-veined; lemmas slightly keeled or rounded, glabrous, 2-toothed, mucronate or awned from between the teeth, often the teeth also awned, awns usually straight, rarely flexuous; paleas sometimes winged; stamens 1-3. Caryopses subteret. Tripogon includes about 40 species. Most are native to the Old World Tropics but at least one is native to tropical America. Only 1 species, Tripogon subtilissimus, is known from Somaliland and Somalia. Global distribution of Tripogon. 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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