Plants perennial or annual; cespitose or tufted. Culms 4-65 cm, erect, slender. Leaves linear, flat, usually becoming folded and filiform; ligules membranous, ciliate. Inflorescences terminal, unilateral linear spikes or spikelike racemes, with 1 spikelet per node, exceeding the leaves; rachises visible, not concealed by the spikelets. Spikelets appressed, in 2 rows along 1 side of the rachises, with 3-20 bisexual florets, distal florets sterile or staminate; disarticulation above the glumes and between the florets. Glumes unequal, 1(3)-veined; lemmas 1-3-veined, backs slightly keeled or rounded, apices lobed or bifid, mucronate or awned from between the lobes, lateral veins sometimes also excurrent, awns usually straight; anthers 1-3. x = 10.
Discussion
Tripogon is a genus of approximately 30 species, most of which are native to the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere, especially Africa and India, but with one, Tripogon spicatus, native to the Western Hemisphere.
Selected References
None.