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Key to families | Table of families and genera

This text currently parallels The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California, Second Edition that is now available at the University of California Press.

Text appearing in blue on this page will not appear in the printed book; it will be displayed only on the Web. Specimen numbers are hyperlinked to records in the Consortium of California Herbaria data view where possible. Taxa are hyperlinked to entries in the Jepson Interchange via the "[Online Interchange]" link.

 

AIRA

James P. Smith, Jr. & Dieter H. Wilken


Annual.
Stem: tufted, glabrous to puberulent.
Leaf: ± basal; collar glabrous to puberulent; ligule < 1 mm, membranous; blade 0.3–14 cm, 0.3–2.5 mm wide, flat to rolled, upper generally much reduced.
Inflorescence: panicle-like, open to dense.
Spikelet: bisexual, laterally compressed, 1.5–4 mm; glumes > lower floret, translucent, keel scabrous; callus short-bristly; axis breaking above glumes and between florets; florets 2, fertile; lemma faintly 5-veined, generally glabrous, tip with 2 slender teeth, slightly scabrous, awned at or below middle, awn bent once or straight, exserted (occasionally reduced or 0 in lower floret) or straight; palea slightly < lemma; anthers 3.
8 species: s Eur, Medit, Africa, w Asia. (Greek: a weedy grass, perhaps a Lolium) [Wipff 2007 FNANM 24:615–617] Aira cupaniana Guss. [Aira caryophyllea var. cupaniana (Guss.) Fiori] was collected in Contra Costa Co. in 1995, but does not appear to have persisted.

Key to Aira

1. Infl compact, spike-like, 0.3–0.7 cm wide; glumes 3–3.5 mm ..... A. praecox

1' Infl open, 1.5–10 cm wide; glumes 1.5–3 mm

2. Infl branches equal; spikelet stalk generally 1–2 × spikelet; spikelet 2.4–3.5 mm ..... A. caryophyllea

2' Infl branches unequal; spikelet stalk 2–8 × spikelet; spikelet 1.5–2.5 mm ..... A. elegans

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Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) [year] Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html [accessed on month, day, year]
Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on [month, day, year].
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