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KOELERIA Pers. Junegrass
Plants hermaphroditic, caespitose, perennial. Culms erect or ascending, glabrous to puberulent;
internodes hollow, terete. Leaves basal, not distinctly distichous; sheaths terete, margins open; auricles
absent; ligules membranous; blades flat or folded or involute, linear, lax. Panicles narrow or
contracted (axis pubescent to puberulent), primary and secondary branches ascending. Spikelets solitary
(shiny), laterally compressed, disarticulation above glumes, awnless or awned, pedicellate; florets 2-5,
reduced florets at apex, callus glabrous; rachilla extended beyond upper floret as a bristle; glumes 2,
first 1-veined, second inconspicuously 3-5-veined, nearly equal, glabrous, awnless; lemmas 3-5-veined
(inconspicuous), membranous with hyaline margins, glabrous, apex minutely bifid; awnless
(rarely awned), veins glabrous; paleas 2-veined, awnless, glabrous. Stamens; anthers yellow. Caryopses
laterally compressed with liquid endosporm. Base chromosome number x=7.
A temperate genus of about 60 species. These species are important components of prairies. They are
adapted to meadows, prairies, or open forests. Some taxa are good livestock forage but frequently not abundant
enough to be important.
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