Flora of North America species comparison

annual, sometimes becoming woody, internodes solid or hollow.

distichous;

sheaths usually open;

auricles sometimes present;

abaxial ligules absent or of hairs;

adaxial ligules membranous, ciliate or not, or of hairs;

blades often pseudopetiolate;

mesophyll cells non-radiate;

adaxial palisade layer often present;

fusoid cells absent, but fusoidlike cells frequently present as extensions of the outer parenchyma bundle sheath;

arm cells absent;

kranz anatomy absent;

midrib simple;

adaxial bulliform cells present, large;

stomata with dome-shaped or triangular subsidiary cells;

bicellular microhairs present, with long, tapering apical cells;

papillae absent.

ebracteate, racemose or paniculate, panicle branches sometimes spikelike;

disarticulation below the spikelets or the florets, sometimes at the base of the pedicels.

bisexual or unisexual, often laterally compressed, with (1)2-many florets, reduced florets present, distal or basal to the functional florets.

shorter than the lemmas;

lemmas lacking uncinate hairs, usually 5-9-veined, unawned or with single, terminal awns;

paleas usually well-developed, sometimes short compared to the lemmas;

lodicules 2 or none, cuneate, usually well-vascularized, varying to not or scarcely vascularized;

stamens 2;

ovaries glabrous;

haustorial synergids presumed absent;

styles 2, sometimes fused at the base, if free, close.

basal, punctiform;

endosperm hard, without lipid;

starch grains simple;

embryos small or large relative to the caryopses;

epiblasts present;

scutellar cleft present;

mesocotyl internode present;

embryonic leaf margins overlapping, x = (11)12.