20. Anthoxanthum L. (vernal grass)
About 50 species, North America, Central America, South
America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, mostly
in temperate regions or at high elevations.
Generic boundaries in this group are controversial. Anthoxanthum
in the strict sense contains about 20 mostly Old World species, but some authors
expand the genus to include the approximately 30 species separated in most of
the botanical literature as Hierochloe R. Br. (Tucker, 1996).