G.451. Oplismenus P. Beauv. - Basket grasses

Annual or perennial grasses of shady places and forests. Culms weak, trailing. Leaves: lamina lanceolate to ovate. Inflorescence of 1-sided racemes arranged along a central axis, the spikelets in pairs (the lower often reduced). Spikelets laterally flattened, lanceolate; glumes 1/2 to 3/4 length of spikelet, the lower glume or both glumes tipped by a sticky (scaberulous in O. burmannii) awn; lower lemma acute to shortly awned; upper lemma dorsally flattened, smooth, shiny, coriaceous, with involute margin. A genus of weakly defined species. Clayton comments that O. compositus, O hirtellus and O. undulatifolius differ in appearance and in geographical distribution, but that variation between them is quite continuous and intermediates cannot be assigned to a particular species with certainty. Poecilostachys oplismenoides also resembles an Oplismenus and grows in similar habitats.

Worldwide: 7 species in tropical and warm regions

Zimbabwe: 4 taxa.