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big squirreltail

Habit Plants perennial, 15–65 cm tall; cespitose.
Culms

erect to ascending.

Leaves

sheaths glabrous or white-villous;

blades 1.5–4 mm wide;

upper surfaces scabrous or hairy.

Inflorescences

5–20 cm; erect, sometimes partially enclosed in the sheath of the uppermost leaf, 2 spikelets per node or rarely 3–4 at some nodes;

internodes 3–5(8)mm;

disarticulation initially at the rachis nodes; later beneath each floret.

Spikelets

10–15 mm, divergent, 2–4 florets; lowest florets sterile and glume-like in 1 or both spikelets at each node.

Glumes

(10)30–100 mm including the awns; the bases hard and glabrous;

glume bodies about (2)5–10 × 1–2 mm, setaceous, 2–3-veined;

margins firm;

glume awns (8)25–90 mm; each split above the base into 3–9 unequal divisions, scabrous, flexuous to outcurving from near the bases at maturity.

Lemmas

fertile lemmas 8–10 mm; smooth or scabrous near the tips, 2 lateral veins extending into bristles to 10 mm;

lemma awns (10)20– 110 × 0.2 mm at the base, divergent to arching.

Anthers

1–2 mm.

2n

=28.

Elymus macgregorii

Elymus multisetus

Distribution
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Dry, often rocky grasslands and savannas. 50–2000m. BR, Col, ECas, Lava, Sisk, WV. CA, ID, NV, WA; southeast to CO, south to Mexico. Native.

Elymus multisetus has inflorescences that fall apart at maturity and glumes that are divided into three to nine widely spreading awns. Very similar E. elymoides has glumes that are entire or unevenly split into two to three parts. Determining how much the glumes are split is complicated by the presence of glumelike sterile lemmas in both E. multisetus and some E. elymoides subspecies. Elymus multisetus glumes are divided above the base. If the glumes appear to be divided to the base, the plant is more likely to be E. elymoides.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 401
Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting
Sibling taxa
E. canadensis, E. ciliaris, E. elymoides, E. glaucus, E. hirsutus, E. lanceolatus, E. multisetus, E. repens, E. trachycaulus, E. tsukushiensis, E. violaceus, E. wawawaiensis
E. canadensis, E. ciliaris, E. elymoides, E. glaucus, E. hirsutus, E. lanceolatus, E. repens, E. trachycaulus, E. tsukushiensis, E. violaceus, E. wawawaiensis
Synonyms Sitanion jubatum
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