Eleusine

• 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

  Eleusine

• Description

  Genus Description - Cespitose, sometimes rhizomatous annual or perennial herbs; culms erect or decumbent. Leaf sheaths glabrous or hairy; ligule a ciliate membrane; blades flat to folded. Inflorescence a digitate or subdigitate terminal cluster of spikelike racemes terminating in a spikelet. Spikelets sessile, several-flowered, strongly laterally compressed, borne in 2 staggered rows on one side of a 3-angled rachis; disarticulation above the glumes; rachilla pronounced between the florets; glumes lanceolate, shorter than the lowest floret; lower glume 1-nerved; upper glume 3-5-nerved; lemmas lanceolate, 3-5-nerved; paleas shorter than the lemmas; stamens 3. Caryopsis globose and transversely rugose with a thin, free pericarp.

• Distribution

  A genus native to the Old World tropics, with 10 species.