Chloridoideae

Chloridoideae
Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) in Nepal
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
(unranked):	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Subfamily:	Chloridoideae
Tribes
Centropodieae Cynodonteae Eragrostideae Triraphideae Zoysieae

Chloridoideae is one of the largest subfamilies of grasses, with roughly 130 genera and 1,600 species, mainly found in arid tropical or subtropical grasslands. Within the PACMAD clade, their sister group are the Danthonioideae. The subfamily includes widespread weeds such as bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) or goosegrass (Eleusine indica), but also millet species grown in some tropical regions, namely finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and teff (Eragrostis tef).

With the exception of some species in Ellisochloa, most of the subfamily's species use the C₄ photosynthetic pathway. The first evolutionary transition from C₃ to C₄ photosynthesis in the grasses probably occurred in this subfamily, around 32 to 25 million years ago in the Oligocene.

Phylogeny

Relationships of tribes in the Chloridoideae according to a 2015 phylogenetic classification, also showing the Danthonioideae as sister group:

	Danthonioideae
Chloridoideae	Centropodieae Triraphideae Eragrostideae Cynodonteae Zoysieae