Flora of North America species comparison

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Aristida purpurea var. parishii

Aristida purpurea var. fendleriana
Photo is of parent taxon

Parish three-awn, Parish's threeawn
Photo is of parent taxon

Fendler three-awn, Fendler's threeawn
Culms

20-50 cm.

10-40 cm.
Leaves

mostly cauline;

blades more than 10 cm, loosely involute to flat.

mostly cauline;

blades 4-10 cm, involute.
Panicles

15-24 cm;

primary branches stiff, lower branches strongly divergent to divaricate, with axillary pulvini, upper branches appressed to ascending, without axaillary pulvini, lower nodes associated with 8-18 spikelets.

3-14(15) cm;

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

red or dark at anthesis, fading to stramineous;

lower glumes 7-11 mm, 3/4 as long as to equaling the upper glumes;

upper glumes 10-15 mm;

lemmas 10-13 mm long, narrowing to 0.2-0.3 mm wide near the apex;

awns subequal, 20-30 mm long, 0.2-0.3 mm wide at the base.

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

= unknown.

= 22, 44.

Aristida purpurea var. parishii

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

Aristida purpurea var. parishii grows on sandy plains and hills of the southwestern United States and Baja California, Mexico. In many respects it is intermediate between A. purpurea and other species of Aristida with spreading panicle branches, especially A. ternipes var. gentilis. Its spikelets are indistinguishable from those of var. wrightii, but var. parishii frequently has axillary pulvini associated with the lower branches. The two also differ in their phenology: var. parishii flowers from March through May in response to winter rains, whereas var. wrightii flowers from May through October in response to summer rains.

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

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. 333. FNA vol. 25, p. 332.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Aristidoideae > tribe Aristideae > Aristida > Aristida purpurea Poaceae > subfam. Aristidoideae > tribe Aristideae > Aristida > Aristida purpurea
Sibling taxa
A. purpurea var. fendleriana, A. purpurea var. longiseta, A. purpurea var. nealleyi, A. purpurea var. perplexa, A. purpurea var. purpurea, A. purpurea var. wrightii
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. wrightii var. parishii, A. parishii A. fendleriana
Name authority (Hitchc.) Allred (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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