Ehrharta

Thunb.
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 24. Treatment on page 33.

Plants annual or perennial; synoecious. Culms 6-200 cm, sometimes woody, erect to decumbent, sometimes branched above the base, usually pubescent; basal branching intravaginal. Leaves basal or basal and cauline; sheaths terete, open; auricles present, often ciliate; ligules 0.5-3 mm, truncate, membranous or of hairs; blades linear to lanceolate, sometimes disarticulating from the sheaths. Inflorescences racemes or panicles; primary branches spreading to ascending; disarticulation above the glumes, not between the florets. Spikelets 2-17 mm, solitary, pedicellate, terete or laterally compressed, with 3 florets, lower 2 florets sterile, at least the upper equaling or exceeding the distal floret, distal floret bisexual. Glumes from about 1/2 as long as to exceeding the florets, (3)5-7-veined. Sterile florets consisting only of lemmas; sterile lemmas firmer than the glumes, glabrous or pubescent, stipitate or non-stipitate, smooth to rugose, unawned or awned, lowest lemma often with lateral earlike appendages at the base, upper lemma subequal to or longer than the distal floret. Bisexual florets: lemmas often indurate at maturity, glabrous, 5-7-veined, keeled, unawned, sometimes mucronate; paleas thinner than the lemmas, 1-2(5)-veined; anthers (1-5)6, yellow; styles 2, fused or free to the base, white or brown. Caryopses laterally compressed, x = 12.

Distribution

Calif., Pacific Islands (Hawaii), Tex.

Discussion

Named for Jakob Friedrich Ehrhart (1742-1795), a German botanist of Swiss origin who studied under Linnaeus.

Key

1 Upper glumes 3/4 - 9/10 the length of the spikelets; sterile lemmas hairy, not transversely rugose Ehrharta calycina
1 Upper glumes less than 3/4 the length of the spikelets; sterile lemmas glabrous or sparsely hispidulous, often transversely rugose distally. > 2
2 Lower sterile lemmas unawned Ehrharta erecta
2 Lower sterile lemmas awned, the awns 2-20 mm long Ehrharta longiflora