Flora of North America species comparison

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Aristida purpurea var. fendleriana
Photo is of parent taxon

Fendler three-awn, Fendler's threeawn
Culms

10-40 cm.
Leaves

mostly cauline;

blades 4-10 cm, involute.
Panicles

3-14(15) cm;

primary branches mostly appressed, stiff, straight, without axillary pulvini, with few spikelets.
Lower glumes

5-8 mm;

upper glumes 10-15 mm;

lemmas 8-14 mm long, apices 0.2-0.3 wide;

awns subequal, 18-40 mm long, occasionally slightly longer, 0.2-0.3 mm wide at the base.
2n

= 22, 44.

Aristida purpurea var. fendleriana
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; SD; TX; UT; WY
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Aristida purpurea var. fendleriana grows on open slopes, hills, and sandy flats, at low to medium elevations, from the western United States into northern Mexico. It is often confused with var. longiseta, having short basal leaves and short panicles, but plants of var. fendleriana have narrower lemma apices and thinner, shorter awns than those of var. longiseta.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 332.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Aristidoideae > tribe Aristideae > Aristida > Aristida purpurea
Sibling taxa
A. purpurea var. longiseta, A. purpurea var. nealleyi, A. purpurea var. parishii, A. purpurea var. perplexa, A. purpurea var. purpurea, A. purpurea var. wrightii
Synonyms A. fendleriana
Name authority (Steud.) Vasey
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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