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Lemmon's needle grass

Habit Plants tightly cespitose, not rhizomatous.
Culms

15-90 cm tall, 0.7-1 mm thick, glabrous, pubescent, or tomentose;

nodes 3-4.

Panicles

7-21 cm long, about 1 cm wide;

branches straight, strongly ascending to appressed, longest branches 4-5 cm.

Spikelets

appressed to the branches.

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.

Caryopses

4-5 mm, fusiform.

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.

2n

= 34.

Achnatherum lemmonii

Distribution
from FNA
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.)

Key
1. Lower sheaths and culms glabrous or pubescent, not tomentose, the hairs to 0.2 mm long
subsp. lemmonii
1. Lower sheaths and culms tomentose, the hairs 0.4-0.6 mm long
subsp. pubescens
Source FNA vol. 24, p. 125.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Stipeae > Achnatherum
Sibling taxa
A. aridum, A. arnowiae, A. contractum, A. coronatum, A. curvifolium, A. diegoense, A. eminens, A. hendersonii, A. hymenoides, A. latiglume, A. lettermanii, A. lobatum, A. nelsonii, A. nevadense, A. occidentale, A. parishii, A. perplexum, A. pinetorum, A. richardsonii, A. robustum, A. scribneri, A. splendens, A. stillmanii, A. swallenii, A. thurberianum, A. wallowaense, A. webberi, A. ×bloomeri
Subordinate taxa
A. lemmonii subsp. lemmonii, A. lemmonii subsp. pubescens
Synonyms Stipa lemmonii
Name authority (Vasey) Barkworth
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