Oplismenus P.Beauv.

Perennials or annuals, ± weak, trailing, often carpet-forming, decumbent and rooting at lower nodes with slender ascending leafy culms. Leaf-sheath < internodes, keeled above, often with minute cross-veinlets, open; margins often hair-fringed, overlapping. Ligule ciliate. Leaf-blade thin, flat, ovate to lanceolate, usually variously pubescent; margins finely scabrid. Inflorescence a racemose panicle with spikelets solitary, or in pairs or racemelets, falling entire at maturity; rachis, branches and pedicels slender, angular. Spikelets 2-flowered; lower floret ♂ or Ø, upper floret ☿. Glumes ± equal, < florets, membranous, 3–7-nerved, ± keeled above, both, or at least the lower, apically awned. Lower floret: lemma similar to glumes in texture, 5–9-nerved, mucronate to shortly awned; palea = lemma, or reduced, or 0. Upper floret: lemma chartaceous to subcoriaceous, oblong, glabrous, margins enfolding palea, awnless; palea = lemma; lodicules 2, broadly cuneate; stamens 3; ovary apex glabrous, styles terminal to subterminal, free to base; caryopsis tightly enclosed by anthoecium, embryo large, hilum linear, variable in length. Fig. 22.

[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 (second printing).]