| Monocotyledon | Literature for Melinis minutiflora
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2019. |
| Poaceae -- The Grass Family | Bibliography |
| Melinis minutiflora | |
Common name(s): ryegrass, molasses grass |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Native to Africa and now introduced to many parts of the tropics as a fodder plant.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i. | |
| Habit |
Strong smelling perennial; culms ascending, decumbent at base and branching often, to 1 m tall. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves viscid pubescent; sheath often sticky, tomentose; ligule a row of hairs 0.5‒1 mm long; blade flat, 10‒25 cm long, 3‒11 mm wide. |
|
| Flowers |
Inflorescensces a dense panicle, often purple tinged, lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid, 10‒30 cm long, pedicel scaberulous, rarely with a few long hairs. Spikelets narrowly oblong, 1.5‒2(‒2.4) mm long, glabrous or sometimes pubescent; first glume vestigial, represented by a minute oblong scale 0.2‒0.5 mm long, second glume purple to green, 2‒2.5 mm long, prominently 7-veined, veins raised, apex obtuse, bifid, ± with a mucro to 0.5 mm
long; first floret reduced to a lemma, lemma purple to green, linear, ca. 2 mm long, 5-veined, veins raised, apex bifid, awn scabrous, arising from the midrib, 10‒15 mm long; second lemma enclosing the palea, whitish green to pale green, coriaceous, linear, 1.6‒1.8 mm long, 5-veined, nerves raised, glabrous, apex acute, minutely bifid, ± awned from between the lobes, awn to 15 mm long; second palea similar to second lemma in shape, size, and appearance. |
|
| Fruit |
Caryopses not observed and often undeveloped. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 36, 40. |
|
| Contributor |
Warren Wagner |
