Aegopogon

Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 25. Treatment on page 273.
Revision as of 19:25, 24 September 2019 by FNA>Volume Importer

Plants annual or perennial; synoecious; tufted, cespitose, or sprawling. Culms 2-30 cm. Sheaths open; ligules membranous; blades flat. Inflorescences terminal, racemelike, 1-sided panicles, usually exceeding the upper leaves; branches 0.4-0.8 mm, not appressed to the rachis, with 3 spikelets, bases sharply curved, strigose, axes not extending beyond the distal spikelets; disarticulation at the base of the branches. Spikelets with 1 floret; lateral spikelets pedicellate, staminate or sterile, varying from rudimentary to as large as the central spikelet; central spikelets sessile or pedicellate, laterally compressed, bisexual. Glumes exceeded by the florets, cuneate, truncate to bilobed, 1-veined, awned from the midveins, sometimes also from the lateral lobes; lemmas 3-veined, central veins and sometimes the lateral veins extended into awns, central awns always the longest; paleas almost as long as the lemmas, 2-keeled, 2-awned; lodicules 2; anthers 3; styles 2. Caryopses about twice as large as the embryos; hila punctate, x = 10.

Distribution

Calif., Ariz.

Discussion

Aegopogon is an American genus of four species that extends from the southwestern United States to Peru, Bolivia, and northern Argentina. One species is native in the Flora region.

Lower Taxa