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sprangletop

Habit Plants 5–110 cm tall.
Inflorescences

panicles 1.5– 72 cm × 4–22 mm;

branches 3–35, 1.5–20(22) cm, spreading to reflexed.

Spikelets

5–12(14)mm with (2)3–12(20) florets.

Glumes

1-veined, glabrous, scabrous, or hairy;

lower glumes 1–3(4.9) mm;

upper glumes 1.8–5 mm.

Caryopses

0.8–2 mm.

Ligules

2–8 mm, membranous, attenuate, lacerate when mature;

blades 3–50 cm × 2–7 mm; flat to involute, glabrous or scabrous.

Lemmas

2–6 mm, glabrous to hairy, sometimes with a dark spot at the base;

tips truncate to acute, often shortly bilobed, sometimes mucronate or awned;

lemma awns 0–3.5 mm.

Anthers

0.2–1 mm.

2n

=20.

Leptochloa dubia

Diplachne fusca

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

3 subspecies; 2 subspecies treated in Flora.

Diplachne fusca can be a challenge to identify when first encountered. Its ephemeral wetland habitat and several florets per spikelet might suggest Puccinellia, and individuals with dark gray spikelets recall some species of Muhlenbergia, but the spike-like branches and the long ligules distinguish it from both these genera.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 392
Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting
Sibling taxa
D. fusca
Subordinate taxa
D. fusca ssp. fascicularis, D. fusca ssp. uninervia
Synonyms Leptochloa fusca
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