Toothache Grass

Perennials. Inflorescence a solitary raceme bearing pectinate spikelets on a semi-terete (crescent-shaped in section) rhachis. Spikelets several-flowered: 2 lowermost florets barren; 3rd fertile and the apical 1(-3) much reduced. Spikelets laterally flattened, sessile, alternate in 2 rows, disarticulating above the glumes but not between the florets. Glumes unequal; lower small with an awn-point; upper as long as and enclosing the florets, shortly awned from the apex and also bearing an oblique dorsal awn. Lemmas long-awned from the back or near the apex, conspicuously ciliate.

Ctenium is a genus of African and American plants in the grass family.

Species Ctenium aromaticum (Walter) Alph.Wood - United States from Texas to New Jersey Ctenium bahiense Longhi-Wagner - Bahia Ctenium brachystachyum (Nees) Kunth - Brazil, Paraguay Ctenium brevispicatum J.G.Sm. - Brazil Ctenium canescens Benth. West Africa Ctenium chapadense (Trin.) Döll - Brazil Ctenium cirrhosum (Nees) Kunth - Brazil, Suriname Ctenium concinnum Nees - Africa incl Madagascar Ctenium concissum Swallen - Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia Ctenium crista-castrensis (Hedw.) C.E.O. Jensen - United States, Canada Ctenium elegans Kunth - Africa Ctenium floridanum (Hitchc.) Hitchc. - Georgia, Florida Ctenium ledermannii Pilg. - central Africa Ctenium longiglume Kupicha ex Longhi-Wagner & Cope - Burundi, Zaïre, Zambia Ctenium newtonii Hack. - Africa Ctenium planifolium (J.Presl) Kunth - central + southern Mexico Ctenium plumosum (Hitchc.) Swallen - western Mexico Ctenium polystachyum Balansa - Brazil, Paraguay Ctenium sesquiflorum Clayton - Guinea, Liberia Ctenium villosum Berhaut - West Africa formerly included

see Dactyloctenium Enteropogon Tetrapogon

Ctenium digitatum - Enteropogon dolichostachyus Ctenium indicum - Tetrapogon tenellus Ctenium nukaviense - Dactyloctenium aegyptium Ctenium rupestre - Enteropogon rupestris Ctenium sechellense - Enteropogon sechellensis