117 



Fig. 86. Pappophorum wrightii S. Wats. PURPLE-GRASS.— a, A spikelet: 6, 

 the same with the outer glumes removed; c, the flowering glume of the perfect 

 doret flattened out and seen from the back; d, palea. Fig. 222 in Bui. 7 illus- 

 trates a second species of this genus. 



86. PAPPOPHORUM Schreb. Gen. PI. 2 : 787. 1791. Spikelets 1-2-, rarely 

 3-flowered; rachilla articulated above the lower glumes, 1-2-flowered, her- 

 maphrodite, the uppermost often staminate. Lower empty glumes 2, persistent, 

 membranaceous, acute, carinate, nerveless on the sides or with 1-3 nerves on 

 each side; flowering glumes broad at base, subcoriaceous, obscurely many- 

 nerved, unequally divided into 9-23 awn-like lobes: upper 2-3, narrower, empty, 

 ' or one or the other inclosing a palea or rudiment of a flower; palea included in 

 the flowering glume, rather broad, 2-carinate near the margins, sometimes ex- 

 ceeding the entire part of the glume. Perennial (or rarely annual ?) csespitose 

 grasses, with narrow, usually convolute leaves, dense, spike-like panicles, often 

 somewhat interrupted; awns usually plumose. 



Species about 20, in tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, 3 in 

 our Southwestern States and Territories, extending southward into Mexico. 



