Flora of North America species comparison

5-45 cm, erect, sometimes geniculate at the base, with (3)4-9 nodes.

mostly basal or cauline;

basal leaves withered at anthesis;

sheaths smooth or scabridulous;

ligules (0.7) 1.5-3.5 mm, dorsal surfaces scabrous, apices acute, rounded, or truncate, lacerate;

blades 0.5-4 cm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, flat, becoming involute.

3-20 cm long, (0.5)2-12 cm wide, widely ovate, ultimately open and diffuse, the whole panicle detaching after maturity, blowing about as a tumbleweed, bases usually exserted, sometimes enclosed by the upper sheaths at maturity, lowest node with 1-6 branches;

branches scabridulous, capillary, branching beyond midlength, initially ascending, becoming laxly spreading, spikelets clustered near the tips, lower branches 2-8 cm;

pedicels 0.3-7.5 mm;

secondary panicles sometimes present in the leaf axils.

narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, yellowish purple to greenish purple.

equal, 1.5-2.2 mm, 1-veined, scabrous on the midvein, margins scabrous distally, acute;

callus hairs to 0.6 mm, dense;

lemmas 1-2 mm, smooth or scabrous to warty, translucent, 5-veined, veins prominent, apices acute, entire or 2-5-toothed, teeth minute, to 0.8 mm, usually awned from just below the apices, sometimes unawned, awns 3-10 mm, flexuous, not geniculate, deciduous;

paleas absent or minute;

anthers 1, 0.1-0.2 mm, lobes widely separated by the connective, usually retained at the apices of the caryopses.

1-1.4 mm;

endosperm liquid.

= 28.