Family: Poaceae |
Kelly W. Allred Plants annual or perennial; cespitose or shortly rhizomatous. Culms 30-200 cm, unbranched; internodes semi-solid. Leaves cauline, not aromatic; sheaths shorter than the internodes, rounded; ligules membranous; blades flat to involute. Inflorescences terminal, solitary racemes of heterogamous subsessile-pedicellate spikelets pairs (rarely of 2 digitate spikelike branches), axes slender, without a translucent median groove; disarticulation beneath the pedicellate spikelets. Subsessile spikelets staminate or sterile, without a callus and unawned, otherwise similar to the pedicellate spikelets. Pedicelsslender, not fused to the rames axes. Pedicellate spikelets bisexual; calluses sharp, strigose; glumes firm, enclosing the florets; lower glumes several-veined, encircling the upper glumes; upper glumes 3-veined; lower florets sterile; upper florets bisexual, lemmas firm but hyaline at the base, tapering to an awn; awns (4)6-15 cm, twisted, pubescent to plumose; paleas absent; anthers 3. x = 10. Name from the Greek trachys, rough, and pogon, beard, referring to the plumose awn of the bisexual florets. SELECTED REFERENCES Dávila, P.D. 1994. Trachypogon Nees. Pp. 380-381 in G. Davidse, M. Sousa S., and A.O. Chater (eds.). Flora Mesoamericana, vol. 6: Alismataceae a Cyperaceae. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Biología, México, D.F., México. 543 pp.; Judziewicz, E.J. 1990. Flora of the Guianas: 187. Poaceae (Gramineae). Series A: Phanerogams, Fascicle 8 (series ed. A.R.A. Görts-Van Rijn). Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein, Germany. 727 pp. |