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Volume V (2000) - Flora of New Zealand Gramineae
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Aira L.

Aira L., 1753

Type species: A. praecox L.

Slender, annual or biennial, glabrous, herbaceous tufts. Leaf-sheath rounded. Ligule membranous. Leaf-blade convolute to flat, narrow. Panicle with delicate branches. Spikelets ± laterally compressed, small, 2-flowered; disarticulation above glumes and between florets; rachilla not, or occasionally, prolonged. Glumes subequal, membranous, delicate, ≈ or > lemmas, 1-3-nerved. Lemma 5-nerved, lanceolate, becoming ± chartaceous below, hyaline above, apex shortly bifid, with a fine, dorsal, geniculate awn, or the lower or both lemmas awnless. Palea < lemma, 2-keeled. Callus very short, hairy. Lodicules 2, lanceolate, acute, glabrous. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous; styles free. Caryopsis dorsiventrally compressed, longitudinally grooved; embryo small; hilum punctiform or shortly elliptic; endosperm solid.

Key

1
Panicle linear, dense, with erect branches
3. praecox
Panicle ± ovate, lax, with spreading branches
2
2
Pedicels of most spikelets at least twice length of glumes
2. elegans
Pedicels of most spikelets less than twice length of glumes
3
3
Glumes 2-3.5 mm, entire, acute; both lemmas awned
1. caryophyllea
3a
Glumes 2.5-3.5 mm; plants usually 4-35 cm
subsp. caryophyllea
Glumes 2-2.5 mm; plants usually 20-50 cm
subsp. multiculmis
Glumes c. 2 mm, mostly denticulate, often mucronate; lower lemma mostly awnless
cupanianaξ (p. 297)

8 spp., from temperate Europe, western Asia and North Africa. Naturalised spp. 3; transient sp. 1.

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