Achnatherum lemmonii |
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Lemmon's needle grass |
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Habit | Plants tightly cespitose, not rhizomatous. | ||||
Culms | 15-90 cm tall, 0.7-1 mm thick, glabrous, pubescent, or tomentose; nodes 3-4. |
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Panicles | 7-21 cm long, about 1 cm wide; branches straight, strongly ascending to appressed, longest branches 4-5 cm. |
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Spikelets | appressed to the branches. |
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Glumes | subequal, 7-11.5 mm; lower glumes 0.9-1.1 mm wide, 4-5-veined; upper glumes 3-veined; florets 5.5-7 mm long, 0.8-1.3 mm thick, fusiform, somewhat laterally compressed; calluses 0.4-1.2 mm, blunt; lemmas coriaceous, evenly pubescent, hairs 0.4-1 mm, apices 1-lobed, lobe about 0.1 mm long, thick, stiff, apical lemma hairs 0.4-0.8 mm; awns 16-30 mm, persistent, (once)twice-geniculate, all segments scabrous, terminal segment straight; paleas 4.5-6.5 mm, from 3/4 as long as to equaling the lemmas, sparsely to moderately pubescent, hairs not exceeding the apices, veins terminating below the apices, apices flat or pinched; anthers 2.3-3.5 mm, dehiscent, not penicillate. |
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Caryopses | 4-5 mm, fusiform. |
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Basal | sheaths glabrous, pubescent, or tomentose; collars, including the sides, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, hairs shorter than 0.5 mm; basal ligules 0.5-1.2 mm, hyaline, glabrous, truncate to acute; upper ligules to 2.5 mm; basal blades 0.5-1.5 mm wide, folded to convolute, abaxial surfaces smooth, glabrous, adaxial surfaces prominently ribbed, often with 0.3-0.5 mm hairs, sometimes glabrous; upper blades to 2.5 mm wide, otherwise similar to the basal blades. |
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2n | = 34. |
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Achnatherum lemmonii |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; BC
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Discussion | Achnatherum lemmonii grows in sagebrush and yellow pine associations, from southern British Columbia to California and east to Utah. It has been confused in the past with A. nelsonii; it differs in having narrower leaves, laterally compressed florets with a thick apical lobe, and longer paleas. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 125. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Stipeae > Achnatherum | ||||
Sibling taxa | |||||
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Synonyms | Stipa lemmonii | ||||
Name authority | (Vasey) Barkworth | ||||
Web links |
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