Aristida oligantha |
Aristida pansa |
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Oldfield three-awn, prairie three-awn |
Wooton threeawn, Wooton's threeawn |
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Habit | Plants annual. | Plants perennial; cespitose. |
Leaves | cauline; sheaths usually shorter than the internodes, lowermost sheaths appressed-pilose basally; collars glabrous; ligules less than 0.5 mm; blades usually 4-12 cm long, 0.5-1.5 mm wide, flat or loosely involute, somewhat lax, glabrous or scabridulous, pale green. |
basal and cauline; sheaths usually longer than the internodes, glabrous except at the summit; collars densely pilose, hairs 1-3 mm, cobwebby and tangled, often deflexed; ligules less than 0.5 mm; blades 4-28 cm long, less than 1 mm wide, usually involute, infrequently flat, usually arcuate, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces glabrous or puberulent near the base, scabrous or puberulent distally. |
Inflorescences | spicate or racemose, (5)7-20 cm long, 2-4 cm wide; primary branches rarely developed. |
paniculate, 10-20 cm long, 3-10(12) cm wide; rachis nodes usually glabrous, sometimes with straight, less than 0.3 mm hairs; primary branches 2-11 cm, stiffly ascending to spreading, with axillary pulvini; secondary branches and pedicels with or without pulvini; terminal spikelets often divergent. |
Spikelets | divergent, pedicels with axillary pulvini. |
clustered on the distal 1/2 of the branches. |
Glumes | unequal, glabrous, brownish-green with a purple tinge; lower glumes (9)12-22(28) mm, 3-7-veined, midvein extended into a 1-13 mm awn between 2 delicate setae; upper glumes (7)11-20(24) mm, 1-veined; calluses 0.5-2 mm; lemmas (9)12-22(23) mm, glabrous, light-colored, often mottled; awns (8)12-65(70) mm, subequal, spreading; anthers usually 1 and less than 0.5 mm, rarely 3 and 3-4 mm. |
equal or subequal, 1-veined, acuminate or awned, awns to 6 mm, brownish; lower glumes 5-10 mm; upper glumes 6-12 mm; calluses 0.5-1 mm; lemmas 7-13 mm, terminating in an obscure, narrow beak 1-4 mm long, 0.1-0.2 mm wide, junction with the base of the awns not evident; awns 6-15 mm, not disarticulating at maturity, central and lateral awns similar in length and thickness, spreading to horizontal; anthers 3, 1-3 mm, brown. |
Caryopses | 8-14 mm, brown. |
6-8 mm, tan. |
Culm(s) | 25-55 cm, erect or geniculate at the base, highly branched. |
20-60(75) cm, erect, unbranched. |
2n | = 22. |
= unknown. |
Aristida oligantha |
Aristida pansa |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; WY; BC; ON
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AZ; NM; TX
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Discussion | Aristida oligantha grows in waste places, dry fields, roadsides, along railroads, and in burned areas, usually in sandy soil. It has been reported from Coahuila, Mexico, but is otherwise unknown outside southern Canada and the United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Aristida pansa grows in desert scrub, commonly in the Chihuahuan Desert of the southwestern United States and Mexico, but its ecological range extends into the lower juniper zones and its geographic range to southern Mexico. It prefers cobbly to sandy, often gypsiferous soil. It is very similar to the single-awned A. gypsophila, but it has also been confused with A. purpurea var. perplexa, which differs in having reddish glumes of unequal length and longer ascending awns. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 326. | FNA vol. 25, p. 324. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. pansa var. dissita | |
Name authority | Michx. | Wooton & Standi. |
Web links |
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