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Info
Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus etymology:
Species etymology: miliaceum = "resembling Milium L" [Latin] refering to the spikelets
Photosynthetic type: C3 (cool season)
Nativity: naturalized - intentional
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 1929
Map
Habit
Spikelets
Landscape
Description
Plants loosely cespitose, not rhizomatous. Culms 40-150 cm, glabrous, often branching at the lower cauline nodes; basal branching extravaginal. 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. 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. 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. Caryopses 1.5-1.7 mm long, about 0.8 mm thick; hila linear, about 1/2 as long as the caryopses. 2n = 24.
(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/Piptatherum_miliaceum )