BRACHYPODIUM, Beauv. (in part . 



SPIKELETS at first cylindric, then laterally compressed, in a simple raceme or 

 false spike with very short pedicels, with the flattened side to the axis ; rhachilla 

 glabrous, disarticulating above the glumes and between the valves. Florets 5 to 

 many, perfect, the uppermost more or less reduced. 



GLUMES more or less unequal, firm, strongly 3 to 7-nerved, lower often 

 slightly asymmetric. Valves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, usually narrowed into 

 a straight awn, or mucronate, rounded on the back, closely imbricate at first, then 

 more or less diverging and rolling inwards, 7-nerved, nerves prominent in the 

 upper part, faint below ; callus very short, obtuse. Pales oblong, rather broad, 

 very obtuse or truncate, slightly shorter than the valve, 2-keeled, keels rigidly 

 ciliate. Lodicules 2, lanceolate, usually ciliolate. Stamens 3, rarely 2. Ovary 

 with a villous appendage at the top ; styles laterally inserted on the appendage, 

 very short ; stigmas plumose, laterally exserted. Grain linear or linear-oblong, 

 convexo-concave, adhering more or less to the pale ; embryo small ; hilum filiform, 

 long. 



PERENNIAL OR ANNUAL ; blades flat or setaceously involute ; racemes ter- 

 minal ; joints of axis more or less hollowed out (at least the lower) on the side 

 facing the spikelets ; spikelets usually few (sometimes I), erect or spreading, rather 

 large. 



Species about 15, often very difficult to discriminate, mainly in the temperate 

 regions of the northern hemisphere. 



