Melinis
stinkgrass
20-150 cm, erect, decumbent, or prostrate.
open;
ligules of hairs or membranous and ciliate.
terminal, simple panicles or panicles of spikelike primary branches, usually with capillary secondary branches and pedicels;
disarticulation below the glumes, sometimes also below the upper florets, the upper florets then falling first.
with 2 florets.
present or absent, 0-1-veined, unawned;
upper glumes equaling or exceeding the florets, sometimes gibbous basally, 5-7-veined, emarginate to bilobed, awned or unawned;
lower florets staminate or sterile;
lower lemmas similar to the upper glumes, but not gibbous;
upper florets bisexual, laterally compressed;
upper lemmas subcoriaceous, glabrous, smooth, unawned;
upper paleas resembling the upper lemmas;
lodicules 2, fleshy or membranous, x = 9.
Melinis
Melinis is an African and western Asian genus of 22 species that grow in savannahs, open grasslands, and disturbed places. Two species have become established in the Flora region.
Rhynchelytrum Nees has traditionally been treated as a separate genus, with the number of veins being the diagnostic character. Zizka (1988) showed that this separation was artificial; consequently the older generic name, Melinis, is now applied to species that used to be included in Rhynchelytrum.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Glumes and pedicels glabrous, scabridulous; lower florets without paleas | M. minutiflora |
1. Glumes, and usually the pedicels, with hairs to 7 mm long; lower florets with paleas | → 2 |
2. Leaf sheaths not strongly overlapping, blades not rolled | M. repens |
2. Strongly overlapping leaf sheaths, rolled blades, and usually perennial | M. nerviglumis |
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