Source:
SSA
Description:
Annual or perennial, tufted. Leaf blade linear, expanded or rolled, flaccid; ligule an unfringed membrane. Inflorescence a bristly single spike; spikelets solitary, sessile, distichously imbricate on main axis. Spikelet 10-15 mm long, laterally compressed, falling with glumes (not disarticulating in cultivated species); glumes narrow, unequal, +/- as long as spikelet (excluding awns), strongly keeled, acuminate to awned, upper glume 1-nerved. Florets 2 or 3, bisexual or uppermost floret reduced and sterile; lemma oblong, lanceolate, glabrous, strongly keeled with single median keel on back, 5-nerved, nerves apically nonconfluent, awned; awn usually obvious, straight, glabrous; palea 2-keeled, bidentate, almost equalling lemma. Lodicules 2, hyaline, ciliate. Stamens 3. Ovary obovoid, hairy; styles distinct, plumose above. x= 7.
Distribution:
Species +/- 5, Mediterranean, E Europe to central Asia; 1 in sthn Afr.: Secaleafricanum Stapf, 'Wild Rye', Western Cape (Roggeveld area).
Classification:
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