Data from: A morphometric approach in plumose and pappus-like awn South American stipoids

Within grasses, the tribe Stipeae is highly specialized by the presence of
only one fruit per spikelet and characterized by the diversity on the
ornamentation of the floret. Our aim was to analyze similarities based on
multi and uni-variate analyses among species reflecting evolutionary
trends in American Stipeae: Jarava species with plumose awns, and species
of Pappostipa, all characterized by pappus-like awns. Ordination analyses
(Principal coordinates analysis and Cluster analysis) were used to
determinate major groupings, while significant differences among groups
were tested by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and univariate
analysis based on a generalized linear model (GLM). We delimited five
groups. Small floret characterizes Jarava annua, J. media and J.
plumosula, although J. annua is clearly distinguished by the distribution
of hairs in the awn column. Jarava subplumosa and J. psylantha are
characterized by the pubescence of the culm, the length of the floret
callus, the length of the awn subule, and the length of the awn hairs.
Pappostipa is distinctive by having hairs only in the awn column that
resemble a pappus while Jarava neaei + J. pogonathera present the longest
inflorescences and hairs only in the awn subule, resembling a feather. As
a result, we present a key to taxa and descriptions to help characterize
and identify species within the Jarava-Pappostipa clade.