Latin penna – feather, seta – bristle, referring to the plume-like bristles.
Annual or perennial grass with spreading, clumping or stoloniferous growth habit. Leaves mostly basal with blades mostly flat, rolled in bud. Ligule a fringe of hairs. Inflorescence dense, cylindrical, or spike-like, each spikelet with bristles at the base, the bristles remaining when the spikelet falls. Spikelets dorsally flattened, with 2 flowers. Lower glume short and 0-5 nerved, upper glume 0-11 nerved. Lower floret male or sterile, awnless; upper floret bisexual, awnless. Palea relatively long, 2 nerved.
Grown for the ornamental clumps and plumed decorative flower heads. Some are significant weeds.
Annuals by seed, perennials by division.
Lawn grasses e.g. P. clandestinum, other species for pasture, erosion control or as a source of grain (P. typhoides, P. glaucum). A few species are used in the manufacture of beers and paper.
Inflorescence a dense, bristly, cylindrical panicle. Bristles, generally plumed, at the base of the spikelet and falling with it.
About 80 species from tropical and warm-temperate regions. Australia has 3 native species.
Source: (2005). Poaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
