G.584. Sorghum Moench

Robust annuals or perennials. Leaves: lamina linear. Inflorescence a large terminal panicle, the branches bearing short racemes; internodes and pedicels filiform; spikelets of each pair different. Sessile spikelet dorsally flattened; lower glume ± coriaceous, broadly convex across the back, becoming 2-keeled and narrowly winged near the tip; lower floret reduced to a hyaline lemma; upper lemma hyaline, 2-dentate with a glabrous awn from the sinus. Pedicellate spikelet male or barren, narrower than the sessile and awnless.

Worldwide: 24 species in warm parts of the Old World including 1 species in Mexico

Mozambique: 2 cultivated taxa.