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Click the number at the start of a key lead to highlight both that lead and its corresponding lead. Click again to show only the two highlighted leads. Click a third time to return to the full key with the selected leads still highlighted.

Key to Poaceae, Key D: rattail or cob grasses

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1 All spikelets unisexual, the pistillate and staminate spikelets either in separate inflorescences, or the pistillate spikelets below the staminate spikelets in the same inflorescence; leaves 9-120 mm wide; [tribe Andropogoneae].
  2 Pistillate spikelets below the staminate in the same inflorescence
  2 Pistillate and staminate spikelets in separate inflorescences, the pistillate inflorescences axillary, staminate inflorescences terminal
 Zea
1 Some spikelets bisexual; leaves 1-25 mm wide.
    3 Spikelets with 2-7 florets, the lower bisexual and fertile, the upper sometimes sterile; [tribe Triticeae]
    3 Spikelets with at most 2 florets, the lower staminate or sterile, the upper bisexual, staminate, or sterile.
      4 Culms 2-45 cm tall; leaves 1-6 mm wide; plants annual (perennial in Eremochloa and Stenotaphrum).
        5 Plants obviously and prominently rhizomatous (Eremochloa) or stoloniferous (Stenotaphrum); lower glume with pectinate margins (Eremochloa) or irregularly toothed (Stenotaphrum)
          6 Plant rhizomatous; lower glume with pectinate margins; [commonly naturalized turf grass and roadside weed]; [tribe Andropogoneae]
          6 Plant stoloniferous; lower glume irregularly toothed; [naturalized turf grass and allegedly also native]; [tribe Paniceae]
        5 Plants annual; lower glume with smooth and cartilaginous margins (or absent); [rare waifs]; [tribe Poeae].
             7 Spikelets with 2 glumes
      4 Culms 30-400 cm tall; leaves 2-25 mm wide; plants annual or perennial; [tribe Andropogoneae].
               8 Lower glumes of the sessile spikelets rough, rugose, pitted, tuberculate or alveolate between the keels
               8 Lower glumes of the sessile spikelets smooth or scabrous.
                 9 Pedicels at least partially fused to the rame axes
                   10 Sheaths mostly glabrous (sparsely ciliate towards the base); plants perennial
                   10 Sheaths with stiff, papillose-based hairs 1-3 mm long; plants annual
                 9 Pedicels appressed, but not fused, to the rame axes.
                     11 Pedicellate spikelets 4-8 mm long
                     11 Pedicellate spikelets 1-3 mm long
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