Burke: Deschampsia cespitosa vs. Deschampsia danthonioides

	Deschampsia cespitosa	Deschampsia danthonioides
	tufted hairgrass	annual hair grass
Habit	Strongly tufted perennial, the culms several, hollow, 2-12 dm. tall.
Leaves	Sheaths open, glabrous to scabrous; ligules acute or obtuse, at least 4 mm. long, often split, pubescent; blades stiff, usually involute, 1.5-3 mm. broad, scabrous on the lower side, with a few raised veins.
Flowers	Inflorescence a panicle 8-25 cm. long, from open and drooping to narrow and erect; spikelets glistening, purplish to tawny, usually 2-flowered, but often with 3 flowers; glumes narrow, the first 1-nerved, 2.5-5 mm. long, the second 3-nerved, 3-6 mm. long; lemmas 2.5-4 mm. long, 5-nerved, the tip 4-toothed; awn attached near the base of the lemma, 2.5-4 mm. long; paleas shorter than the lemmas; rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost flower.

	Deschampsia cespitosa	Deschampsia danthonioides
Flowering time	June-September	May-July
Habitat	From coastal marshes and moist prairies to alpine ridges, talus slopes, mountain meadows, and moist areas in the mountains in general.	Mesic to damp open slopes, ledges, vernal pools, scablands, stream banks, and roadsides.
Distribution	Widely distributed on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to the northern Great Plains, Great Lakes region, and eastern North America. [WildflowerSearch map]	Occurring chiefly east of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to the the Rocky Mountains; apparently introduced in Alaska, Yukon Territory, Arizona, New Mexico, and the eastern U.S.; disjunct in Chile and Argentina. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Origin	Native	Native
Conservation status	Not of concern	Not of concern
Sibling taxa	D. danthonioides, D. elongata	D. cespitosa, D. elongata
Web links	Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search	Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search

Deschampsia danthonioides

tufted hairgrass

annual hair grass

Habit

Strongly tufted perennial, the culms several, hollow, 2-12 dm. tall.

Leaves

Sheaths open, glabrous to scabrous;

ligules acute or obtuse, at least 4 mm. long, often split, pubescent;

blades stiff, usually involute, 1.5-3 mm. broad, scabrous on the lower side, with a few raised veins.

Flowers

Inflorescence a panicle 8-25 cm. long, from open and drooping to narrow and erect;

spikelets glistening, purplish to tawny, usually 2-flowered, but often with 3 flowers;

glumes narrow, the first 1-nerved, 2.5-5 mm. long, the second 3-nerved, 3-6 mm. long;

lemmas 2.5-4 mm. long, 5-nerved, the tip 4-toothed; awn attached near the base of the lemma, 2.5-4 mm. long;

paleas shorter than the lemmas;

rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost flower.

Deschampsia danthonioides

Flowering time

June-September

May-July

Habitat

From coastal marshes and moist prairies to alpine ridges, talus slopes, mountain meadows, and moist areas in the mountains in general.

Mesic to damp open slopes, ledges, vernal pools, scablands, stream banks, and roadsides.

Distribution

Widely distributed on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to the northern Great Plains, Great Lakes region, and eastern North America.

[WildflowerSearch map]

Occurring chiefly east of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to the the Rocky Mountains; apparently introduced in Alaska, Yukon Territory, Arizona, New Mexico, and the eastern U.S.; disjunct in Chile and Argentina.

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

Origin

Native

Conservation status

Not of concern

Sibling taxa

D. danthonioides, D. elongata

D. cespitosa, D. elongata

Web links