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Info
Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus etymology: Briza = "nod" [Greek] refering to the drooping florets
Species etymology: maxima = "greatest" [Latin] refering to the height of the plant
Photosynthetic type: C3 (cool season)
Nativity: naturalized - accidental
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 1917
Map
Inflorescence
image credit: Thierry_ArbaultHabit
image credit: ITO_HirokiSpikelets
image credit: Michael_HinczewskiDescription
Plants annual. Culms 20-80 cm. Leaves evenly distributed; sheaths frequently less than 1/2 as long as the internodes, open to near the base, margins overlapping; ligules 3-7 mm, sides sometimes decurrent, margins entire to erose, acute; blades 2.5-20 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, margins strigose or glabrous. Panicles 3.5-10 cm long, mostly 1-5 cm wide; pedicels 5-20 mm. Spikelets 10-20 mm, oval to elliptic, with 4-12(15) florets. Lower glumes 5-5.5 mm, 5-veined; upper glumes 6-6.5 mm, 7-veined; lowermost lemmas 7-9 mm, 7-9-veined, surfaces usually glabrous proximally, becoming villous distally, apices obtuse; paleas about 4 mm, more or less ciliolate along the margins; anthers 1.2-1.5 mm. Caryopses 2-3 mm, obovoid. 2n = 10, 14.
(Description source: Barkworth, M.E., Capels, K.M. & Long, S. (eds.) 1993. Flora of North America, north of Mexico. Volume 24. Magnoliophyta: Commelinidae (in part): Poaceae, Part 1. Oxford University Press, New York. 911 pp. http://floranorthamerica.org/Briza_maxima )
Glabrous annuals; culms 30-60 cm tall, erect or sometimes decumbent at base. Sheaths 4-8 cm long, usually scarious on margins; ligule 3-5 mm long, membranous; blades 10-30 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, thin. Panicles drooping, 5-8 cm long, with few spikelets; spikelets 10-20 mm long, 7-12 mm wide, 9-15-flowered, ovate, on flexuous pedicels; glumes prominently 7-nerved, broad, chartaceous, obtuse, scarious, margins usually brown, first ghume 5-5.5 mm long, second glume 6-6.5 mm long; lemmas 8-9 mm long, 7-9-nerved, chartaceous, base cordate, acute, margins usually scarious and brown or purple, upper part pilose; palea cuneate or obtuse, 3-3.5 mm long, keels ciliate. Caryopsis dark brown, 2.5-2.7 mm long, 1.5-1.7 mm wide, keeled, beaked. [2n = 14.]
(Description source: O’Connor, P.J. 1990. Poaceae, pp. 1481–1604. In: Wagner W.L., Herbst D.R. & Sohmer S.H. (eds.)., Manual of the flowering plant of Hawaiʻi. Vol. 2. University of Hawaii Press & Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu )