POACEAE  

Perennial grasses, sometimes of shrubby habit, with branched slender culms. Leaf blade lanceolate, narrowly elliptic to oblong-lanceolate; ligule small, ciliate. Inflorescence spike-like, terminal, consisting of short racemes inserted along a leaf-like rachis; axillary inflorescences all bisexual; racemes short, usually not more than 1 or 2; spikelets longer than those of terminal inflorescences, with elongated stigmas protruding from subtending leafsheaths; terminal inflorescences bisexual, lowermost spikelet of each raceme female, the following male , sometimes reduced spikelets present; rachilla not extended. Male spikelets: lower glume rather narrow, almost subulate, acute; upper one 1-nerved, ovate-oblong, up to ? as long as spikelet; lemma of inferior floret 3-nerved, coriaceous; lemma of upper floret 5

Tall woody bamboos. Leaf blade lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, usually glabrous, finally disarticulating from sheath. Inflorescence narrow, slender, large, composed of clusters of spikelets on opposite sides of its branches; each cluster borne in axil of a deciduous sheath which is usually without a lamina. Spikelets sessile, 2-flowered, terete or somewhat laterally compressed, muticous subtended by a pseudo-involucre of broad coriaceous bracts; florets both bisexual; rachilla disarticulating beneath upper glume, produced as a fine bristle beyond upper floret; lower glume absent; upper glume 11

Loosely caespitose perennials arising from a slender rhizome and forming tufts; culms erect, slender. Leaf blade filiform, flexuose, firm but not pungent, glabrous. Inflorescence an open panicle with capillary branches. Spikelets 4

Erect perennials, rarely annual; culms slender, usually unbranched. Leaf blade linear to linear-lanceolate, acuminate; ligule a dense row of hairs. Inflorescence an open to contracted panicle. Spikelets linear-lanceolate, brown, borne in dense triads with short pedicels; peduncle often developing a fragile hook. Lemmas: lower one 3(5

Densely caespitose perennials . Leaf blade usually involute, sometimes flat. Inflorescence a solitary raceme bearing pectinate spikelets on a puberulous rachis. Spikelets 2-flowered, laterally compressed, sessile, alternate in 2 rows on a tough axis, tardily disarticulating above glumes but not between florets. Glumes dissimilar, subequal in length, inferior one 1-nerved, minutely 2-toothed at apex with an awnlet in the sinus; upper one nerveless, with an oblique dorsal awn. Lower floret fertile; fertile lemma hyaline, pilose on keel and ciliate on lateral nerves, 2-toothed at apex and mucronulate. Upper floret male, its lemma glabrous, awned from the back; rachilla terminated by a cluster of sterile awns usually accompanied by a very reduced lemma.