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• Physical Description
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Taxonomy

Physical Description

Family Poaceae:

Annual or perennial herbs, or tall woody bamboos. Flowering stems (culms) jointed, internodes hollow or solid; branches arising singly from nodes and subtended by a leaf sheath and 2-keeled prophyll, often fascicled in bamboos. Leaves arranged alternately in 2 ranks, differentiated into sheath, blade, and an adaxial erect appendage at sheath/blade junction (ligule) ; leaf sheath surrounding and supporting culm-internode, split to base or infrequently tubular with partially or completely fused margins, modified with reduced blade in bamboos (culm sheaths) ; leaf blades divergent, usually long, narrow and flat, but varying from inrolled and filiform to ovate, veins parallel, sometimes with cross-connecting veinlets (especially in bamboos) ; ligule membranous or a line of hairs. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, an open, contracted, or spikelike panicle, or composed of lax to spikelike racemes arranged along an elongate central axis, or digitate, paired, or occasionally solitary; axillary inflorescences often many, subtended by spatheoles (specialized bladeless leaf sheaths) and gathered into a leafy compound panicle; spikelets often aggregated into complex clusters in bamboos. Spikelets composed of distichous bracts arranged along a slender axis (rachilla) ; typically 2 lowest bracts (glumes) empty, subtending 1 to many florets; glumes often poorly differentiated from accompanying bracts in bamboos. Florets composed of 2 opposing bracts enclosing a single small flower, outer bract (lemma) clasping the more delicate, usually 2-keeled inner bract (palea) ; base of floret often with thickened prolongation articulated with rachilla (callus) ; lemma often with apical or dorsal bristle (awn), glumes also sometimes awned. Flowers bisexual or unisexual; lodicules (small scales representing perianth) 2, rarely 3 or absent, 3 to many in bamboos, hyaline or fleshy; stamens 3 rarely 1, 2, 6, or more in some bamboos, hypogynous, filaments capillary, anthers versatile; ovary 1-celled, styles (1 or) 2(rarely 3), free or united at base, topped by feathery stigmas, exserted from sides or apex of floret. Fruit normally a dry indehiscent caryopsis with thin pericarp firmly adherent to seed, pericarp rarely free, fleshy in some bamboos; embryo small or large; hilum punctate to linear.

About 700 genera and 11,000 species: widely distributed in all regions of the world.^[1]

Genus Andropogon:

Annual or perennial. Leaf blades linear, not aromatic; ligule scarious or reduced to a line of hairs. Inflorescence simple or compound; racemes fragile, usually paired, occasionally digitate or single, terminal on the culm or axillary and gathered into a spathate compound panicle; spikelets of a pair dissimilar; raceme bases not deflexed, without homogamous spikelets (present in A. munroi) ; rachis internodes filiform to linear or clavate, sometimes inflated, ciliate on margins. Sessile spikelet usually dorsally compressed; callus short, obtuse, shortly bearded, inserted into internode apex; lower glume membranous to leathery, 2-keeled, lanceolate, flat to concave with lateral keels, these sometimes narrowly winged, with or without intercarinal veins, or linear with dorsal keels and a deep veinless median groove; upper glume awned or awnless; lower floret reduced to a hyaline lemma; upper lemma hyaline, 2-lobed, awned from sinus; awn geniculate, column glabrous or puberulous. Stamens 1-3. Pedicelled spikelet variable, large to much reduced, male or barren. x = 10.

About 100 species: tropical and warm-temperate regions of both hemispheres, especially Africa and America; two species in China.^[2]

Similar Species

Members of the genus Andropogon:

There are approximately 1,567 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: A. australis australis · A. australis leiocladus · A. australis plumosus · A. condensatus corymbosus · A. condensatus elongatus · A. eucomus huillensis · A. gerardii chrysocomus · A. glomeratus reinoldii · A. gryllus calcaratus · A. gryllus eugryllus · A. gryllus gryllus · A. gryllus pallidus · A. halepensis anatherus · A. halepensis leiostachyus · A. halepensis miliformis · A. halepensis muticus · A. halepensis propinquus · A. halepensis siamensis · A. leucostachyus genuinus · A. leucostachyus selloanus · A. nardus ceriferus · A. nardus grandis · A. nardus nilagiricus · A. saccharoides brasiliensis · A. saccharoides genuinus · A. saccharoides laguroides · A. saccharoides leucopogon · A. saccharoides parvispiculus · A. scoparius genuinus · A. scoparius maritimus · A. sorghum abyssinicus · A. sorghum cordofanus · A. sorghum drummondii · A. sorghum effusus · A. sorghum eichengeri · A. sorghum exiguus · A. sorghum halepense · A. sorghum halepensis · A. sorghum hewisonii · A. sorghum niloticus · A. sorghum sativus · A. sorghum sudanensis · A. sorghum verticilliflorus · A. sorghum vogelianus · A. ternatus genuinus · A. ternatus macrothrix · A. virginicus genuinus · A. virginicus leucostachyus · A. abyssinicus · A. achteni · A. acicularis · A. aciculatum · A. aciculatus · A. aculeatus · A. acuminatus · A. acutispathaceus · A. acutiusculus · A. adscendens · A. adustus · A. aequatoriensis · A. aesthenos · A. aethiopicus · A. afer · A. affinis · A. africanus · A. afzelianum · A. agenium · A. agrostoide · A. agrostoides · A. albescens · A. albidus · A. alectoridia · A. allioni · A. allionii · A. alopecuroides · A. alopecurus · A. alternans · A. altissimus · A. amathystinus · A. ambiguus · A. amboinicus · A. amethystinus · A. amplectens · A. amplexifolius · A. ampliflorus · A. amplus · A. anatherus · A. andongensis · A. androphilus · A. angustatus · A. angustifolium · A. angustifolius · A. anias · A. annulatus var. affinis · A. annulatus var. grandispiculatus · A. annulatus var. humilis · A. annulatus var. monostachyus · A. annulatus var. subrepens · A. annuus · A. anomalus

Bibliography

• Chen Shouliang, Jin Yuexing, Zhuang Tide, Fang Wenzhe, Sheng Guoying, Liu Liang, Wu Zhenlan, Lu Shenglian, Sun Bisin, Hu Zhihao, Wang Song, Sun Xiangzhong, Wang Huiqin, Yang Xilin, Wang Chaopin, Li Binggui & Wen Shaobin. 1990. Gramineae (Poaceae) (4). In: Chen Shouliang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 10(1):1401
• Chen Shouliang, Zhuang Tide, Fang Wenzhe, Sheng Guoying, Jin Yuexing, Liu Liang, Sun Bisin, Hu Zhihao & Wang Song. 1997. Gramineae (Poaceae) (5). In: Chen Shouliang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 10(2): 1301
• Liu Liang, Zhu Taiping, Chen Wenli, Wu Zhenlan & Lu Shenglian. Gramineae (Poaceae) (2). In: Liu Liang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(2): 1405
• Lu Sheng-lian, Sun Yong-hua, Liu Shang-wu, Yang Yong-chang, Wu Zhen-lan, Kuo Pen-chao, Yang Hsi-ling, Wang Chao-pin & Tsui Nai-ran. 1987. Gramineae (3). In: Kuo Pen-chao, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(3): 1329
• Wang Zhengping, Ye Guanghan, Yang Yaling, Yu Zehua, Hu Chenhua, Geng Bojie, Feng Xuelin, Jia Liangzhi, Xia Nianhe, Li Dezhu, Zhang Weiping, Xue Jiru, Zhu Zhengde, Zhao Qiseng, Chen Shouliang, Sheng Guoying, Chen Shaoyun, Yao Changyu, Lu Jionglin, Sun Jiliang, Lin Wantao, Yi Tongpei, Zhao Huiru, Wen Taihui & Dai Qihui. 1996. Gramineae (Poaceae) (1).

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Notes

Identifiers:

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15938791
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:13026-2
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3620827

Footnotes:

1. Shou-liang Chen, De-Zhu Li, Guanghua Zhu, Zhenlan Wu, Sheng-lian Lu, Liang Liu, Zheng-ping Wang, Bi-xing Sun, Zheng-de Zhu, Nianhe Xia, Liang-zhi Jia, Zhenhua Guo, Wenli Chen, Xiang Chen, Yang Guangyao, Sylvia M. Phillips, Chris Stapleton, Robert J. Soreng, Susan G. Aiken, Nikolai N. Tzvelev, Paul M. Peterson, Stephen A. Renvoize, Marina V. Olonova & Klaus Ammann "Poaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 22. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
2. Shou-liang Chen & Sylvia M. Phillips "Andropogon". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 572, 621, 623, 624, 627. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.