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AXONOPUS Beauv. Carpetgrass
Plants caespitose or stoloniferous, perennial. Culms erect or ascending or mat forming, glabrous or puberulent;
internodes solid, flattened. Leaves not differentiated into two kinds (basal rosette absent), mainly basal, not
distinctly distichous; sheaths with compressed keels; ligules a ciliate membrane; blades flat or folded.
Panicles of 2-several spicate primary unilateral branches, branches paired at apex and alternate
below, terminating in a spikelet; bristles absent below spikelets. Spikelets solitary, not embedded in
branch, adaxial, dorsiventrally compressed or planoconvex; disarticulation below spikelets; florets 2
; lower sterile and without stamens; upper fertile, more than eight tenths lower lemma length; first
glumes absent, not fused with callus; second glume present (round on back), equal spikelet length, not
saccate, 2-9-veined; lemma of upper florets (fertile), cartilaginous, smooth or muricate, brown to
yellow, glabrous, margin flat or involute, not differentiated at apex, awnless; paleas of upper floret awnless.
Stamens 3; anthers purple. Base chromosome number x=10.
A tropical or subtropical genus of about 110 species. Pasture and lawn plants where soils are moist, heavy
clays or sandy. This genus differs from Paspalum in spikelet orientation. In Axonopus the second glume is
oriented away from the branch axis.
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