19. Poaceae Tribe DANTHONIEAE
扁芒草族 bian mang cao zu
Authors: Zhen-lan Wu, Shou-liang Chen & Sylvia M. Phillips
Perennial or rarely annual, occasionally forming tall tussocks, culms usually solid. Leaf blades linear to setaceous; ligule a line of hairs (Elytrophorus membranous). Inflorescence an open or contracted panicle, sometimes spikelike or scanty and racemelike. Spikelets alike (except Cortaderia, Elytrophorus), laterally compressed, fertile florets several, uppermost florets reduced, disarticulating between florets; floret callus usually bearded, short and obtuse or elongate; glumes persistent (except Schimus), variable in length, shorter than lemmas to as long as spikelet, usually membranous, 1–9-veined, apex acute to acuminate; lemmas rounded on back, hyaline to leathery, glabrous, pilose or villous, hairs sometimes in tufts, (1–)3–11-veined, apex entire or 2-lobed, awnless or a straight or geniculate awn with flat twisted column arising from apex or sinus, lobes often extended into bristles; palea well developed. Stamens (1–)3. Caryopsis usually ellipsoid, hilum short or long-linear. Leaf anatomy non-Kranz; microhairs slender, the apical cell ± as long as basal cell (replaced by long slender papillae in Cortaderia). x = 9 or 12.
Between 18 and 25 genera and ca. 300 species: tropical and temperate regions, mainly in S hemisphere, especially South Africa and Australia; four genera (one introduced) and six species (one introduced) in China.
