OregonFlora species comparison

usually herbaceous; erect to sprawling;

internodes hollow or solid;

nodes prominent and usually swollen.

blades 10– 45 cm × 3–15(25) mm; flat or occasionally involute, scabrous.

alternate, 2-ranked; each consisting of a sheath that encircles the culm and a blade;

sheaths open or closed with margins fused for much or all of their lengths;

auricles present or absent;

ligules usually present at the sheath-blade junction; on the side toward the culm, membranous or of hairs, rarely absent;

blades usually linear to lanceolate with parallel veins.

7–40 × 6–12 cm;

branches spreading;

disarticulation beneath each floret.

usually complex aggregations of spikelets into panicles; racemes, or spikes, usually with a main axis;

spikelets usually supported on pedicels;

disarticulation above or below the glumes, usually beneath each floret, sometimes in or below the inflorescence axis.

18– 32 mm with 2–3(5) florets.

consisting of 2 glumes subtending 1–many florets arranged on either side of the rachilla, laterally or dorsiventrally compressed, occasionally round in cross section.

18–32 mm with 9–11 veins; awnless.

(0)2, with an odd number of veins, sometimes awned.

(0)3(6).

usually bisexual, sometimes pistillate, staminate or sterile, usually consisting of a lemma and palea with the flower between them; the flower itself reduced to stamens; a pistil; and 2 lodicules.

usually a caryopsis.

8–160 cm tall.

hairs to 25% as long as the lemmas.

14–22 mm with 5–9 veins; leathery; thin and membranous at the tip, densely pubescent below mid-length, sometimes sparsely pubescent or glabrous;

tips bifid;

teeth 0.3–1.5 mm but lacking long bristle-like tips;

lemma awns 23–42 mm, arising in the middle 33% of the lemma backs.

usually with an odd number of veins, awned or awnless, with calluses;

lemma awns; if present, arising at the tip; along the back or near the base, sometimes curved; bent, or twisted.

about 3 mm.

usually 2-keeled, often with additional veins.

=42.