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GYMNOPOGON P. Beauv.
Plants hermaphroditic, caespitose or rhizomatous, perennial. Culms stiffy erect or ascending, glabrous; internodes hollow,
terete. Leaves cauline, distinctly distichous; sheaths terete, margins open; auricles absent; ligules a minute
membrane; blades flat or folded, lanceolate to linear, stiff, apex acuminate. Panicles with several spicate
primary unilateral branches; branches mostly alternate or opposite, open, spikelets in two rows. Spikelets solitary, terete
or laterally compressed, disarticulating above the glumes, awned, sessile; florets 2, reduced floret at apex, callus
hairy, rachilla not extended above upper floret, mucronate to awned; glumes 2, (acuminate) 1-veined, equal, equal to
or longer than first floret, scabrous, awnless; lemmas 3-veined, membranous, hairy, apex minutely bifid, awned
(1) from between the teeth; paleas 2-veined, awnless, glabrous. Stamens 3; anthers purple. Caryopses elliptical, terete or
dorsiventrally compressed. Base chromosome number x=10.
A New World genus of about 15 species. Our taxa are adapted to dry pine/woodlands.
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