Leptochloa

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Leptochloa

• Description

  Genus Description - Usually tall annual or perennial grasses, with flat leaves and numerous spikes forming a simple panicle. Spikelets usually several-flowered, flattened, alternating in two rows on one side of the rachis. Scales 4 to many; the 2 lower empty, keeled, shorter than the spikelet; the flowering scales keeled, 3-nerved. Palet 2-nerved. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Stigmas plumose. Grain free, enclosed in the scale and palet. [Greek, in allusion to the slender spikes.] About 12 species, natives of the warmer regions of both hemispheres. Type species: Cynosurus virgatus L.