Genomic constitution
K
Distinguishing features
Annual plants with tough, strap-shaped glumes 16-25 mm long.
Description
Plants annual. Culms to 30 cm tall.
Leaf sheaths from clearly ciliate to almost glabrous; auricles prominent; blades ciliate; sheaths of the innovations connate when young.
Inflorescences spikelike, 3.5-6.5 cm long, with 6-14 nodes, bearing two spikelets; rachis internodes about 3 mm long; disarticulation below the florets.
Spikelets with 1-2 florets, the second floret rudimentary. Glumes subequal, 16-25 mm long, straplike, stiff, scabrous. Lemmas 5-8 mm long, not keeled, scabrous, awned, awn 15-22 mm long, flat. Anthers about 0.8 mm long.
Caryopsis adherent to lemma and palea.
Size
There is only one species of Crithopsis, Crithopsis delileana (Schult.) Roshev.
Distribution
From Morocco to western Afghanistan and Baluchistan, but with most collections being from the southeastern Mediterranean region.
Type species
Crithopsis delileana (Schult.) Roshev.
References
Frederiksen, S. 1993. Taxonomic studies in some annual genera of the Triticeae. Nordic Journal of Botany 13: 481-493.