Piptatherum miliaceum |
Poaceae subfam. pooideae |
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smilo grass |
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Habit | Plants loosely cespitose, not rhizomatous. | Plants annual or perennial; sometimes matlike, sometimes cespitose, sometimes stoloniferous, sometimes rhizomatous. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Culms | 40-150 cm, glabrous, often branching at the lower cauline nodes; basal branching extravaginal. |
usually hollow, sometimes solid. |
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Leaves | not basally concentrated; sheaths glabrous, persistent; ligules of lower leaves 0.5-1.5 mm, truncate; ligules of upper leaves 1.5-4 mm, rounded to sharply acute; blades 5-30 cm long, 2-10 mm wide, flat, smooth on both surfaces. |
distichous; sheaths usually open to the base, varying to closed for nearly their full length; auricles present or absent; abaxial ligules absent; adaxial ligules scarious or membranous, sometimes puberulent or scabridulous, usually not ciliate, cilia sometimes shorter than the base; pseudopetioles rarely present; blades usually linear, sometimes broadly so, venation parallel; cross sections non-Kranz, mesophyll nonradiate, adaxial palisade layer absent, fusoid and arm cells usually absent; midribs usually simple; adaxial bulliform cells present; stomates with parallel-sided subsidiary cells; epidermes usually lacking bicellular microhairs, sometimes with unicellular microhairs, papillae usually absent, when present, rarely more than 1 per cell. |
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Panicles | 10-40 cm, lax, lower nodes either with 3-7 branches bearing 10-40 functional spikelets, or with 15-30+ branches with no functional spikelets; primary branches spreading to ascending; lower branches 3-8 cm; secondary branches diverging from the primary branches. |
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Inflorescences | usually terminal, panicles, spikes, or racemes, usually ebracteate; disarticulation usually below the florets, sometimes below the glumes, at the rachis nodes, or at the inflorescence bases. |
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Spikelets | usually bisexual, infrequently unisexual or mixed, usually laterally compressed or not compressed, occasionally dorsally compressed, with 1-30 sexual florets, distal floret(s) often reduced, infrequently spikelets with 1-2 reduced or staminate basal florets and a single terminal sexual floret. |
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Glumes | 2.5-3.5 mm, acuminate, 3-veined; florets 1.5-2 mm, dorsally compressed; calluses about 0.3 mm, glabrous, disarticulation scars circular; lemmas stiffly membranous, glabrous, margins fused at the base, not overlapping, light brown at maturity; awns 3-4 mm; anthers 2-2.5 mm, penicillate; ovaries rounded, bearing two styles. |
usually 2, upper or lower glumes sometimes absent, rarely both glumes absent; lemmas without uncinate hairs, awned or not, awns single, basal to apical; paleas usually well-developed, sometimes reduced or absent; lodicules 2(3), usually lanceolate and broadly membranous distally, rarely truncate and fleshy, usually not veined or obscurely veined, sometimes distinctly veined, sometimes ciliate; anthers (1, 2)3; ovaries glabrous or sometimes hairy distally, sometimes with an apical appendage; haustorial synergids absent; styles (1)2 (-4), bases close together, sometimes fused. |
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Caryopses | 1.5-1.7 mm long, about 0.8 mm thick; hila linear, about 1/2 as long as the caryopses. |
hila linear, elliptic, ovate, or punctate; endosperm usually hard, sometimes soft or liquid, with or without lipids, starch grains compound or simple; embryos less than 1/2 the length of the caryopses; epiblasts usually present; scutellar cleft usually absent; mesocotyl internode usually absent; embryonic leaf margins overlapping, x = 7, 10. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Piptatherum miliaceum |
Poaceae subfam. pooideae |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; ID; MD; NJ; NV; PA; UT
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Discussion | Piptatherum miliaceum is a Eurasian introduction that is now established in several parts of the world. In its native range it grows, often as a common species, primarily in disturbed areas, wadis, and oases, penetrating into the semidesert regions of northern Africa and western Asia. It is used as a fodder plant in northern Africa. Within the Flora region, P. miliaceum is known from Arizona and California, growing in disturbed sites. It has also been found on a ballast dump in Maryland. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The subfamily Pooideae includes approximately 3300 species, making it the largest subfamily in the Poaceae. It reaches its greatest diversity in cool temperate and boreal regions, extending across the tropics only in high mountains. The circumscription and relationships of tribes within the Pooideae are unsettled (see, for example, Catalan et al. 1997, 2004; Soreng and Davis 1998). In this flora, some previously recognized tribes have been combined with the Poeae. Recognition of some of these as subtribes is well supported; among these is the Hainardieae Greuter (which, at the subtribal level, is called the Parapholiinae Caro). Members of other traditional tribal groupings, such as the Aveneae Dumort., appear to be widely dispersed within the Poeae sensu lato. Further work will probably support the division of the expanded Poeae into additional tribes; there is as yet no clear indication as to what the boundaries of such tribes should be. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 151. | FNA vol. 24, p. 57. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Stipeae > Piptatherum | Poaceae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Oryzopsis miliacea | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (L.) Coss. | Benth. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |