85 



Fig. 63. Apera spica-veiiti Beauv.— a, The empty glumes; b, the floret show- 

 ing the long-awned flowering glume. 



63. APERA Adans. Fam. PI. 2 : 495. 1763. Spikelets 1-flowered, hermaphro- 

 dite, small; rachilla articulated above the empty glumes, and prolonged above 

 flowering glume into a slender, naked bristle. Glumes 3; the first two empty, 

 somewhat unequal; the 2d longer than the 1st thin -membranaceous, acute, 

 awnless, and 3-nerved; flowering glume shorter than the outer ones, thin and 

 nearly hyaline, shortly 2-toothed at the apex.awned; awn inserted just below 

 the apex of the flowering glume and much exceeding it in length, straight or 

 somewhat geniculate. Palea a little shorter than its glume, 2-keeled, 2-toothed. 

 Stamens 3. Styles distinct, short; stigmas plumose. Caryopsis narrow, included 

 in the fruiting glume, free. Annual grasses, with flat leaves and terminal, 

 diffuse or contracted, many-flowered panicle. 



Species 2, in Europe and Western Asia, 1 introduced into North America. 



