Tribe III. Paniceæ.
Spikelets with 1 terminal hermaphrodite flower with or without a male one below it. Flowering glumes awnless, cartilaginous or coriaceous, in fruit hardened and enclosing the grain. Outer glumes thinner in texture than the flowering glumes, rarely awned.
Spikelets 1-flowered, plano-convex, sessile in 2 or 4 rows in one-sided spikes which are either in pairs or form the branches of a simple panicle. Empty glumes 2 |
3. Paspalum. |
Spikelets with 2 hermaphrodite flowers, panicled; outer glumes 2, persistent after the rest of the spikelet has fallen away |
4. Isachne. |
Spikelets with 1 hermaphrodite flower and sometimes a male flower below; outer glumes 2 or 3, not awned, the lowest often very small |
5. Panicum. |
Stems weak, decumbent; leaves broad, ovate to lanceolate. Spikelets as in Panicum, but outer glumes awned |
6. Oplismenus. |
Spikelets enclosed, each one or 2–3 together, in an involucre of rigid spines or bristles, often connate into a cup below |
7. Cenchrus. |
Stout wide-creeping sand-plant. Inflorescence diæcious; males in spikes clustered in heads; females in dense globular heads with long radiating pungent-pointed bracts |
8. Spinifex. |