Schizachyrium

• Authority

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

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Schizachyrium

• Description

  Genus Description - Annual or perennial grasses, the spikelets in spike-like racemes, terminating the culm or its branches. Eachis articulated, the internodes cup-shaped or appendaged, the basal callus barbed. Spikelets in pairs at each node of the rachis, one sessile, the other stalked, the sessile one dorsally compressed, 1-flowered, the flower perfect; first scale 2-keeled with infolded margins, the second awnless or bristle-tipped, the third 2-nerved or nerveless, the fourth usually 2-cleft, usually bearing a bent awn. Stalked spikelet usually flowerless. Stamens mostly 3. Styles distinct; stigmas plumose. [Greek, cleft-chaff.] Some 40 species, or more, of tropical and subtropical America. Type species: Andropogon brevifolius Sw.