Flora of North America species comparison

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Anthoxanthum arcticum

arctic sweetgrass, hierochloe pauciflore
Habit Plants perennial; loosely cespitose or the culms solitary, rhizomes elongate, 0.3-1 mm thick.
Culms

5-26(35) cm.
Sheaths

glabrous;

ligules 0.4-1.3 mm, obtuse;

blades 2-25 cm long, 0.7-2 mm in diameter when rolled, involute to convolute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces pubescent.
Panicles

1-3(4.5) cm long, 0.3-0.5 cm wide, spikelike, with 1-2 spikelets per branch.
Spikelets

3.5-5 mm, green to purple;

rachilla internodes about 0.1 mm, glabrous.
Glumes

subequal, 2.9-4.7 mm, shiny;

lowest 2 florets staminate;

lemmas sparsely hairy, acute or slightly notched, unawned or awned, awns to 1 mm;

bisexual lemmas 2.9-4.4 mm, with sparse, spreading hairs towards the apices;

anthers 1.5-3 mm.
Caryopses

about 2.5 mm.
2n

= 28.

Anthoxanthum arcticum
Distribution
from USDA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Anthoxanthum arcticum is a coastal and lowland circumpolar species of the Alaskan, Canadian, and Russian arctic; it is absent from Greenland. It generally grows in wet tundra on acidic, peaty soils. In the warmest sectors of the western high arctic, it is rooted in mats of moss that are growing over carbonate substrates.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 24, p. 760.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Anthoxanthum
Sibling taxa
A. aristatum, A. hirtum, A. monticola, A. nitens, A. occidentale, A. odoratum
Synonyms Hierochloe pauciflora
Name authority Veldkamp
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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