Tripsacum

• Authority

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

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Tripsacum

• Description

  Genus Description - Tall perennial grasses with thick rootstocks, rather broad, flat leaves and monoecious flowers. Spikelets 1-2-flowered, in terminal or axillary, solitary or clustered, elongated spikes. Staminate spikelets in 2 's at each node of the upper part of the axis, 2-flowered, consisting of four scales, the two outer coriaceous, the two inner thinner, the palet hyaline; stamens 3. Pistillate spikelets in excavations at the lower joints of the spike, 1-flowered; stigmas exserted; style slender. Grain partly enclosed in the excavations of the spikes, covered in front by the horny exterior lower scale. [Name from the Greek, in allusion to the polished outer scales.] About 7 species, natives of America, the following typical.