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tall threeawn

Habit Plants perennial; loosely cespitose, bases knotty, sometimes shortly rhizomatous.
Culms

(60)70-100 cm, stiffly erect, unbranched.

Leaves

cauline;

sheaths longer than the internodes, mostly glabrous, summit with hairs;

collars hispid, hairs 0.2-0.8 mm;

ligules less than 0.5 mm;

blades 20-55 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, light bluish-green, flat to loosely folded, glabrous abaxially, scabridulous adaxially.

Inflorescences

paniculate, 30-50 cm long, 15-25 cm wide;

rachis nodes glabrous or with straight hairs shorter than 0.5 mm;

primary branches 8-22 cm, ascending to divaricate or drooping, with axillary pulvini, basal portion without spikelets.

Spikelets

appressed along the branches.

Glumes

brown to purplish, 1-veined, with a 1-2 mm awn;

lower glumes 10-13 mm, slightly longer than the upper glumes;

calluses 0.5-1 mm;

lemmas 10-12(15) mm, glabrous, light gray to brownish, narrowing to a beak, beak less than 7 mm, not or only slightly twisted, junction with the awns not conspicuous;

awns unequal, not disarticulating at maturity;

central awns 20-25 mm, straight;

lateral awns 3-10 mm, to 1/2 as long as and about 1/2 as thick as the central awns, usually divergent;

anthers 3, about 3 mm, yellow-green.

Caryopses

about 8 mm.

2n

= unknown.

Aristida patula

Distribution
from FNA
FL
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Aristida patula grows in sandy fields, low pinelands, and roadsides. It is endemic to Florida.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 321.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Aristidoideae > tribe Aristideae > Aristida
Sibling taxa
A. adscensionis, A. arizonica, A. basiramea, A. californica, A. condensata, A. desmantha, A. dichotoma, A. divaricata, A. floridana, A. gypsophila, A. gyrans, A. havardii, A. lanosa, A. longespica, A. mohrii, A. oligantha, A. palustris, A. pansa, A. purpurascens, A. purpurea, A. ramosissima, A. rhizomophora, A. schiedeana, A. simpliciflora, A. spiciformis, A. stricta, A. ternipes, A. tuberculosa
Name authority Chapm. ex Nash
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