Aristida californica |
Aristida desmantha |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
California three-awn, Mojave three-awn |
curly threeawn |
|||||
Habit | Plants perennial; sometimes flowering the first year. | Plants annual. | ||||
Culms | 10-40 cm, highly branched above the base in age; internodes glabrous or pubescent, sometimes nearly lanose. |
(30)45-80 cm, branching at the lower nodes, often diffusely so; nodes and internodes glabrous. |
||||
Leaves | cauline; sheaths shorter than the internodes, glabrous or puberulent; collars glabrous or pubescent at the sides; ligules 0.5-1 mm; blades usually less than 6 cm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, pale green, involute, glabrous or puberulent abaxially. |
cauline; sheaths shorter or slightly longer than the internodes, glabrous or with straight hairs, sometimes pilose-floccose; collars glabrous or pilose at the sides; ligules about 0.5 mm; blades (6)10-20 cm long, 1-2(3) mm wide, yellow-green, turning reddish late in the season, involute to loosely folded, abaxial surfaces smooth or scabrous near the base, sometimes pubescent distally, adaxial surfaces usually glabrous, sometimes scabrous or pubescent, lateral veins about twice as thick as the inner veins. |
||||
Inflorescences | paniculate or racemose, 5-10 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, with few spikelets; rachis nodes glabrous or with straight hairs; primary branches 1-2 cm, appressed, without axillary pulvini. |
paniculate, 10-20 cm long, 2-7 cm wide; rachis nodes glabrous; primary branches stiffly ascending, with axillary pulvini, with 3-9 spikelets. |
||||
Spikelets | appressed. |
in fan-shaped clusters, pedicels with axillary pulvini. |
||||
Glumes | unequal, 1-2-veined; lower glumes 4-10 mm; upper glumes 7-15 mm; calluses about 1 mm; lemmas 5-7 mm, purple or mottled, junction of the lemma and awns evident; awns twisted together basally into a 4-26 mm column, free portions 12-50 mm, those of the central and lateral awns similar in length, curved to arcuate basally, straight and divergent distally, disarticulating at the base of the column at maturity; anthers 3, about 2 mm long. |
10-17 mm, about equal, light to dark brown, glabrous or rarely sparsely pilose, 1-veined, apices cleft and awned, awns 2-5 mm; calluses 1-2.5 mm; lemmas 7-10 mm, gray to light brown, narrowing to a 2-5(7) mm beak, junction of the lemma and awns evident; awns 20-28 mm, similar in length, curved to strongly arcuate near the base, not forming a column, straight and divergent distally, disarticulating at maturity; anthers 3, 1-2 mm, dark purple. |
||||
Caryopses | 7-8 mm, smooth, chestnut brown. |
|||||
2n | = 22. |
= unknown. |
||||
Aristida californica |
Aristida desmantha |
|||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA
|
AR; IL; KS; LA; MO; NE; OK; TX; WI |
||||
Discussion | The range of both varieties of Aristida californica extends from the southwestern United States into northwestern Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Aristida desmantha grows in sandy fields, dry pine woods, and waste places in the United States. It is generally similar to A. tuberculosa, but has shorter glumes, calluses, and awns. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 319. | FNA vol. 25, p. 319. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Aristidoideae > tribe Aristideae > Aristida | Poaceae > subfam. Aristidoideae > tribe Aristideae > Aristida | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Thurb. | Trin. & Rupr. | ||||
Web links |