48 A MANUAL OF FARM GRASSES 



FLOWERS AND SEED 



The reproductive parts of the plant consist of flowers, 

 which in turn produce the seed. 



Flower. — The individual flowers of grasses are ar- 

 ranged in spikelets, which are usually small and incon- 

 spicuous, but nearly always are aggregated in clusters or 

 masses technically known as the inflorescence. The 

 inflorescence of the grains and most of our common 

 grasses is known to the layman as the flower or seed 

 head. And when the inflorescence appears the plant is 

 said to be headed-out. The flower cluster or head may 

 be dense as in timothy and wheat, or open as in oats and 

 bluegrass. 



The unit of the inflorescence or head is the spikelet. 

 This can be easily observed in wheat or oats. The wheat 

 head consists of a central flattish zig-zag axis with a row 

 of spikelets on each side. The spikelets are fastened at 

 the joints of the axis, alternating with each other on the 

 two sides, those in each row overlapping. In oats the 

 spikelets are hanging from slender branchlets of the 

 inflorescence. In timothy the spikelets are very small 

 and flat, and are crowded in a dense cylindric mass or 

 head. 



The spikelet contains the individual flowers. The 

 familiar wheat spikelet will illustrate this. The flattened 

 spikelet consists of several overlapping scale-like bracts 

 (fig. 3) . These bracts are in two rows and when removed 

 are boat-shaped. In bearded wheat some of the bracts 

 extend into long bristles (the beard) . If a wheat spikelet 

 is examined at the time the wheat is in flower, it will be 

 found that the middle bracts, when pulled apart, contain 



