Source:
SSA
Description:
Perennial, tufted. Leaf blade expanded to tightly rolled; ligule an unfringed membrane. Inflorescence an open or contracted panicle; spikelets all alike, pedicelled. Spikelet laterally compressed, plump and gibbous, disarticulating above glumes; glumes +/- equal, longer than spikelet, similar, rounded on back, 3-nerved, awned or awnless. Floret 1; lemma cylindrical, convolute, firmer than glumes, becoming indurated, thick and stiff; margins strongly overlapping, awned asymmetrically; awn geniculate, robust, longer than body of lemma, apex fused at crown just below awn, crown often ciliate, cilia sometimes fused; callus short, blunt, hairy; palea one third or less length of lemma, glabrous, hyaline, nerveless. Stamens with anthers often of two different sizes even within same floret. Ovary glabrous. x = 19.
Distribution:
Species +/- 15, South America, mainly Andes; +/- 5 naturalised in sthn Afr., Western and Eastern Cape.
Classification:
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