Description: "Spikelets all alike, awnless, in pairs,
unequally pedicellate on a slender continuous rachis, surrounded
by long silky hairs; glumes about equal, membranaceous; sterile
lemma, fertile lemma, and palea thin and hyaline. Perennial, slender,
erect grasses, from hard scaly rhizomes, with terminal narrow
silky panicles." (Hitchcock, 737, 1971)
Focal Species: Microstegium vimineum (Trin.) Camus;
Sorghum halepense (L.) Pers.
The Andropogoneae is a tribe of the subfamily Panicoideae, together
with the tribes Melinideae, Paniceae, and Tripsaceae. As a whole,
this subfamily contains a huge diversity of grasses, the taxonomy
of which is often disputed and fairly unstable (Hitchcock, 1971;Radford, Ahles, and Bell, 1968).
The Andropogoneae tribe itself contains grasses that range from
rhizomatous annuals to apomictic perennials, found primarily in
the tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones of the world, but
ranging further north and south with seasonal variations of warm
and hot temperatures(Hitchcock, 1971).
As with most of the grasses, the grasses within Andropogoneae
can usually reproduce in several different ways, are found as
both annuals and perennials in varying environments, and exhibit
hybridization quite frequently (Watson & Dallwitz, 1992).
While there are many native species within Andropogoneae, many
more have been introduced into this country and have become naturalized
to varying degrees. Two such naturalized members of Andropogoneae
are Microstegium vimineum (Trin.) Camus and
Sorghum halepense (L.) Pers. Like
several other species found in Adropogoneae, Sorghum halepense
(L.) Pers. (Johnsongrass) is an important economic grass in
the United States, being cultivated primarily as a forage crop.
Other economically important species found in Adropogoneae include
Zea mays (L.) (Maize or Indian Corn), Sorghum
vulgare Pers. (Sorghum), and Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro.)
Hack. (Centipedegrass) (Gould, 1983).
Sharply contrasting with the ecomonic success of the purposely
introduced Sorghum halepense (L.) Pers.,
the accidentally introduced, Microstegium vimineum (Trin.) Camus,
formerly known as Eulalia viminea and sometimes referred
to as Eulalia, is considered a pest in many Southeastern states,
where it is very successful in shaded forests and especially along
riverbanks that have been disturbed by flooding or human engineering,
and as a result threaten to overrun the natural habitats of more
fragile native grasses and wildflowers (Barden, 1987).