Family: Poaceae |
Mary E. Barkworth Plants annual or perennial; tufted or cespitose. Culms 15-50 cm, not woody. Sheaths open; ligules membranous. Inflorescences terminal, spikelike panicles, each node supporting a highly reduced branch or fascicle of spikelets; fascicles imbricate, with a short, thick, basal stipe subtending 4 thick, rigid, coriaceous, many-veined, flat, narrowly elliptic to ovate bracts; bracts fused at the base, enclosing 2-11 spikelets, 1-2 of the spikelets sterile or reduced; disarticulation beneath the fascicles. Spikelets with 2 florets. Lower glumes absent; upper glumes acicular, 1-veined, awned; lower florets sterile, sometimes reduced; lower lemmas 7-veined; lower paleas subequal to the lower lemmas; upper florets bisexual, sterile, or reduced; upper lemmasfaintly 3-veined. Caryopses ellipsoidal. x = 9. Name from the Greek anthe, blossom, and pherin, to bear, alluding to the superficial resemblance of the inflorescence to a normal flower. SELECTED REFERENCE Reeder, J.R. 1960. The systematic position of the grass genus Anthephora. Trans. Amer. Microscop. Soc. 79:211-218. T.A. Cope (1995) Anthephora. Flora of Somalia 4: 247-248 Plants annual or perennial herbs. Leaves: ligules membranous; blades flat. Inflorescences spikelike, cylindrica, bearing short, oblong to conical, deciduus clusters of 3-11 spikelets surrounded by an involcre of stiffly coriaceous, narrowly elliptic bracts, these free almost to the base and with obtuse to awned tips. Spikelets dorsally compressed; lower glumes absent; upper glumes with broad bases and subulate tips, their backs facing inwards; lower florets reduced to hyaline lemmas, exceeded by the upper lemmas; upper lemmas cartilaginous, margins thin, flat, almost covering the paleas. Caryopses oblong-ellipsoid, dorsally compressed. Anthephora includes 12 species that are native to Africa and Arabia plus one that is native to tropical America. There are two species in Somaliland and Somalia. Key to the species of Anthephora in Somaliland and Somalia. Global distribution of Anthephora. 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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