Melinis

Annuals or perennials. Ligule a ciliate rim. Inflorescence a panicle. Spikelets laterally flattened; lower glume small or 0; upper glume and lower lemma as long as spikelet, membranous to coriaceous, sometimes gibbous, emarginate to 2-lobed, sometimes awned; lower floret male or sterile; palea present or 0; upper lemma smaller than lower, often deciduous before the rest of the spikelet, laterally flattened; margin enfolding the palea. This genus is not at all an easy one to name. The spikelets are small, so that the details of the palea are not easy to see and the often densely hairy glumes and lemmas lead to difficulties in counting the veins and in seeing other small details.

Melinis is a genus of African and Arabian plants in the grass family.

The generic name is derived from the Greek meline meaning "millet".

Species Melinis ambigua Melinis amethystea Melinis angolensis Melinis ascendens Melinis biaristata Melinis drakensbergensis Melinis effusa Melinis gossweileri Melinis kallimorpha Melinis longiseta Melinis macrochaeta Melinis minutiflora Melinis nerviglumis Melinis repens Melinis reynaudioides Melinis rupicola Melinis scabrida Melinis subglabra Melinis tanatricha Melinis tenuissima Melinis tomentosa Melinis welwitschii formerly included

numerous species now regarded as better suited to Tricholaena