Poaceae tribe Phareae

Plants perennial; rhizomatous, sometimes cespitose; monoecious. Culms annual, 10-300 cm, erect to decumbent; internodes usually solid. Ligules scarious, sometimes ciliolate; pseudopetioles present, twisted, placing the abaxial surface of the blades uppermost; blades linear to oblong, not folding or drooping at night, lateral veins diverging obliquely from the midveins, cross venation evident. Inflorescences panicles, usually espatheate; ultimate branches with 1-2 pistillate spikelets and 1 terminal, staminate spikelet; disarticulation beneath the pistillate florets and in the panicle branches. Spikelets unisexual, heteromorphic, usually in staminate-pistillate pairs on branchlets, with 1 floret; rachillas not prolonged beyond the florets. Staminate spikelets pedicellate, smaller than the pistillate spikelets, lanceolate to ovate, caducous; glumes unequal; lower glumes absent or much shorter than the upper glumes; upper glumes somewhat shorter than the floret; lodicules minute or absent; anthers 6. Pistillate spikelets sessile or shortly pedicellate, terete, sometimes inflated; glumes unequal to subequal, shorter than the florets, scarious, entire, sometimes persistent; lemmas chartaceous, becoming coriaceous, veins 5 or more, margins involute or utriculate, partly or wholly covered with uncinate hairs, not terminating in a branched awn; paleas 2-veined; lodicules absent; styles 1, 3-branched. Caryopses oblong to linear; hila as long as the caryopses. x = 12.

Discussion

The Phareae include three genera, all of which grow in tropical and subtropical forests. The tribe is represented by one genus in the Western Hemisphere, Pharus.

Selected References

Clark, L.G., W. Zhang, and J.E Wendel. 1995. A phylogeny of the grass family (Poaceae) based on ndhF sequence data. Syst. Bot. 20:436-460

Clark, L.G. and E.J. Judziewicz. 1996. The grass subfamilies Anomochlooideae and Pharoideae (Poaceae). Taxon 45:641-645

Grass Phylogeny Working Group. 2001. Phylogeny and subfamilial classification of the grasses (Poaceae). Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 88:373-457.

Lower Taxa

Pharus