Andropogon ternarius
Andropogon bicornis
split bluestem, splitbeard bluestem
Barbas de indio
70-150 cm.
60-250 cm;
internodes not glaucous.
smooth or scabrous, sometimes pilose;
ligules 0.4-1.5 mm, ciliate;
blades 1-3 mm wide, pubescent or glabrous and glaucous.
smooth;
ligules 0.6-1 mm;
blades 20-70 cm long, 2-7 mm wide, usually glabrous or scabrous on the margins.
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.
50-500; subtending sheaths 2.5-4.5 cm long, 2-3 mm wide;
peduncles 20-70 mm, with 2(3) rames;
rames 2-4 cm, exerted at maturity;
internodes filiform, densely and evenly pubescent, hairs 3-9 mm.
spikelets 4.5-8.4 mm;
callus hairs to 8 mm;
awns 10-25 mm;
anthers 3,1.2-2.3 mm.
spikelets 3-4 mm; unawned;
callus hairs 0.5-1 mm;
keels of lower glumes scabrous above the midpoint;
anthers 3, 1-1.4 mm.
spikelets 1.5-3.6 mm, sterile.
spikelets mostly vestigial or absent, 1-2 of those in the terminal units on each rame 3-5 mm and staminate.
= 40, 60.
= 60, 120.
Andropogon ternarius
Andropogon bicornis
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 bicornis is a widespread species of the Western Hemisphere tropics. It was collected in the early 1960s in Dade County, Florida, near the track of a major hurricane, but may not be established in the Flora region.
(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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