Andropogon gyrans
Andropogon ternarius
Elliott's bluestem
split bluestem, splitbeard bluestem
30-100 (140) cm;
internodes usually glaucous;
branches mostly erect, straight.
70-150 cm.
smooth;
ligules 0.3-1.5 mm, sometimes ciliate, cilia to 0.7 mm;
blades 6-48 cm long, 0.8-5 mm wide, glabrous or densely pubescent with spreading hairs.
smooth or scabrous, sometimes pilose;
ligules 0.4-1.5 mm, ciliate;
blades 1-3 mm wide, pubescent or glabrous and glaucous.
2-31 per culm; subtending sheaths (2.6)4.1-4.5(13.5) cm long, (1.5)2.7-4.7(8) mm wide;
peduncles (1)5-31(195) mm, with 2-5 rames;
rames (1.5)2.8-4.2(6) cm, exserted or not at maturity, pubescence increasing in density distally within each internode.
2-30+ per culm;
peduncles usually 5-20 mm, with (1)2 rames;
rames 3-4 cm, exerted at maturity, terminating in a sessile-pedicellate spikelet pair;
internodes sparsely to densely villous, hairs from as long as to twice as long as the sessile spikelets.
spikelets (3)3.9-4.7(5.7) mm;
callus hairs 1-5 mm;
keels of lower glumes scabrous only beyond midlength;
awns 8-24 mm;
anthers 1, 0.6-1.4(1.7) mm, yellow or purple.
spikelets 4.5-8.4 mm;
callus hairs to 8 mm;
awns 10-25 mm;
anthers 3,1.2-2.3 mm.
spikelets vestigial or absent.
spikelets 1.5-3.6 mm, sterile.
= 20.
= 40, 60.
Andropogon gyrans
Andropogon ternarius
Andropogon gyrans extends from the southeastern United States to the Caribbean and Central America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Andropogon ternarius grows in the southeastern United States and northern Mexico. It is planted as an ornamental and for erosion control on slopes in poor and sandy soils, and is tolerant of coastal conditions.
Andropogon ternarius is similar to A. arctatus but differs in its possession of three anthers and usually in its longer spikelets, both sessile and pedicellate.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Ligules 0.3-1.1 mm long; rames usually hidden within the more or less overlapping and inflated upper sheaths at maturity; plants usually of well-drained soils | var. gyrans |
1. Ligules 0.8-1.5 mm long; rames usually exposed at maturity; plants of wet habitats | var. stenophyllus |
1. Rames densely villous, with hairs about twice as long as the sessile spikelets and more or less obscuring them; lower glumes of the sessile spikelets sometimes scabrous, without conspicuous veins between the keels | var. cabanisii |
1. Rames sparsely villous, with hairs about as long as the sessile spikelets, but not obscuring them; lower glumes of the sessile spikelets scabrous, often conspicuously 2-veined between the keels | var. ternarius |
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