Dactyloctenium

• Authority

  Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Dactyloctenium

• Description

  Genus Description - Cespitose to short-stoloniferous annual or perennial herbs; culms cespitose or decumbent. Leaf ligules membranous to ciliate; linear. Inflorescence a terminal, digitate cluster of 2-11 densely flowered racemes, each terminating in a naked point beyond the last spikelet. Spikelets sessile, 2-9-flowered, laterally compressed, borne in 2 staggered, densely imbricate rows on one side of the 3- angled rachis; glumes 1-nerved, glabrous, shorter than the spikelets, turned lateral to the rachis; the upper glume usually awned or mucronate; disarticulation above the lower glume; uppermost florets rudimentary; lowest florets fertile; lemmas ovate, 3-nerved, the apex with a short, flexuous awn or mucro; paleas shorter than the lemmas; stamens 3. Caryopsis globose to ellipsoid, transversely rugose with a thin deciduous pericarp.

• Distribution

  A genus of the Old World tropics and subtropics, with 13 species.