Andropogon ternarius
Andropogon arctatus
split bluestem, splitbeard bluestem
pinewoods bluestem
70-150 cm.
90-170 cm;
internodes occasionally somewhat glaucous just below the nodes;
branches straight, erect to ascending.
smooth or scabrous, sometimes pilose;
ligules 0.4-1.5 mm, ciliate;
blades 1-3 mm wide, pubescent or glabrous and glaucous.
smooth, rarely somewhat scabrous;
ligules 0.3-0.9 mm, sometimes ciliate, cilia to 0.5 mm;
blades 15-35 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, glabrous or densely pubescent, hairs spreading.
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.
5-45 per culm; subtending sheaths (3.3)3.8-6.8(9) cm long, (2.5)3.2-4(5) mm wide;
peduncles (9)26-66(115) mm, with 2(4) rames;
rames (2.2)2.6-4.3(5.3) cm, usually exserted at maturity, pubescence either evenly distributed or more dense distally within each internode.
spikelets 4.5-8.4 mm;
callus hairs to 8 mm;
awns 10-25 mm;
anthers 3,1.2-2.3 mm.
spikelets (4.3)4.9-5.4(6.1) mm;
callus hairs 1.5-2.5 mm;
keels of lower glumes scabrous from below the midpoint;
awns 5-16 mm;
anthers 1(3), 2-3.5 mm, red.
spikelets 1.5-3.6 mm, sterile.
spikelets vestigial or absent.
= 40, 60.
= 20.
Andropogon ternarius
Andropogon arctatus
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.)
Andropogon arctatus grows in flatwoods, bogs, and scrublands of southern Alabama and Florida. Its flowering appears to be stimulated by fire but, unlike other members of sect. Leptopogon in the Flora region, the effect lasts only one or two years, the plants then remaining vegetative until the next fire occurs. It is similar to A. ternarius, but differs in its long, usually solitary anther and shorter spikelets.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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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