Andropogon tracyi
Andropogon ternarius
Tracy's bluestem
split bluestem, splitbeard bluestem
50-120 cm;
internodes not glaucous;
branches mostly erect, straight.
70-150 cm.
smooth;
ligules 0.2-0.5 mm, ciliate, cilia 0.2-0.8 mm;
blades 10-22 cm long, 1.2-2.6 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely 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.
3-11 per culm; subtending sheaths (2.8)4.1-5.8(7.2) cm long, (3)4-4.7(5.8) mm wide;
peduncles (9)14-31(65) mm, with 2 rames;
rames (1.5)2.4-3.6(4.2) cm, usually exserted 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 (4)4.8-5(5.5) mm;
callus hairs 1.5-3.5 mm;
keels of lower glumes scabrous only above the midpoint;
awns 11-23 mm;
anthers 1, 1.2-2 mm, yellow.
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 tracyi
Andropogon ternarius
Andropogon tracyi grows on sandhills, sandy pinelands, and scrublands of the southeastern United States. It resembles A. longiberbis, but usually differs in having sparsely pubescent blades and a more slender appearance.
(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. 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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