Aristida purpurea var. longiseta
Aristida purpurea var. purpurea
Fendler threeawn, red three-awn
purple three-awn
10-40(50) cm.
26-60 cm.
sometimes mostly basal, sometimes mostly cauline;
blades 4-16 cm, usually involute.
3-17 cm, basal and cauline, involute.
5-15 cm;
primary branches appressed or ascending at the base, without axillary pulvini, stout and straight to delicate and drooping distally, usually neither flexible nor tangled.
10-25 cm;
primary branches appressed at the base, without axillary pulvini, capillary, drooping to sinuous distally;
pedicels capillary, usually lax to sinuous.
8-12 mm;
upper glumes (14)16-25 mm;
lemmas 12-16 mm long, apices 0.3-0.8 mm wide;
awns subequal, 40-100(140) mm long, 0.2-0.5 mm wide at the base.
4-9 mm;
upper glumes 7-16 mm;
lemmas 6-12 mm long, narrowing to 0.1-0.3 mm wide;
awns subequal, (15)20-60 mm long, 0.1-0.3 mm wide at the base.
= 22, 44, 66, 88.
= 22, 44, 66, 88.
Aristida purpurea var. longiseta
Aristida purpurea var. purpurea
Aristida purpurea var. longiseta grows on sandy or rocky slopes and plains, and in barren soils of disturbed ground from western Canada to northern Mexico. It is the most variable variety of Aristida purpurea, ranging from short plants with basal leaves and short panicles suggestive of var. fendleriana, to tall plants with long cauline leaves and long, drooping panicles resembling var. purpurea. The length of its glumes, width of its lemma apex, and the length and thickness of its awns distinguish it from all the other varieties. The callus and long, stiff awns are especially troublesome to sheep and cattle.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Aristida purpurea var. purpurea grows in sandy to clay soils, along right of ways, or on dry slopes and mesas. Its range extends from the Flora region to Mexico and Cuba. As treated here, var. purpurea is, admittedly, a broadly defined taxon, incorporating slender plants with small spikelets that used to be referred to A. roemeriana Scheele, but also occasional plants with somewhat flexible branches that are intermediate to var. wrightii and var. nealleyi.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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