Andropogon ternarius
Andropogon gracilis
split bluestem, splitbeard bluestem
wire bluestem
70-150 cm.
20-60 cm, wiry, glabrous.
smooth or scabrous, sometimes pilose;
ligules 0.4-1.5 mm, ciliate;
blades 1-3 mm wide, pubescent or glabrous and glaucous.
smooth;
ligules to 1.4 mm;
blades to 45 cm long, to 4 mm wide, involute and filiform, or folded.
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.
3-50+ per culm;
peduncles 2-13.2 cm, with 1 rame;
rames 2-4 cm, usually long-exserted at maturity;
internodes densely pubescent, hairs to 8 mm.
spikelets 4.5-8.4 mm;
callus hairs to 8 mm;
awns 10-25 mm;
anthers 3,1.2-2.3 mm.
spikelets 4-6 mm;
lower glumes scabrous in the distal 1/2;
awns 11-20 mm.
spikelets 1.5-3.6 mm, sterile.
spikelets reduced to an awned or unawned glume, sterile.
= 40, 60.
= 40.
Andropogon ternarius
Andropogon gracilis
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 gracilis grows on oolite in openings and rocky margins of pine woodlands of southern Florida and the West Indies. Although not uncommon, it is frequently overlooked. It has sometimes been placed in Schizachyrium because of its solitary rames.
(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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