Pharus

• Authority

  Mori, S. A., et al. 1997. Guide to the vascular plants of central French Guiana: Part 1. Pteridophytes, gymnosperms, and monocotyledons. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 76: 1-422.

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Pharus

• Description

  Genus Description - Monoecious, perennial, herbaceous bamboos; culms erect to decumbent and rooting at nodes, producing stout prop roots. Leaves with elongate pseudopetioles, twisted 180° at summit and thus inverting blades; blade linear to ovate, the veins diverging obliquely from midrib. Inflorescences open, terminal panicles, the spreading branches covered with minute hooked hairs and deciduous from rachis; spikelets paired, 1-flowered, unisexual. Pistillate spikelets larger than staminate, subsessile, elongate; glumes subequal, lanceolate, persistent, several-veined, purplish or greenish (P. virescens); floret indurate, cylindrical, linear to sigmoid, partly or wholly covered with minute, hooked hairs, longer than and disarticulating from glumes, the lemma with scroll-like margins that embrace palea. Staminate spikelets membranous, elliptical, persistent, borne on long pedicels appressed to female spikelet; stamens 6. Mature pistillate spikelets epizoochorous (externally animal-dispersed).