Aristida purpurea var. parishii
Aristida purpurea var. purpurea
Parish three-awn, Parish's threeawn
purple three-awn
20-50 cm.
26-60 cm.
mostly cauline;
blades more than 10 cm, loosely involute to flat.
3-17 cm, basal and cauline, involute.
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.
10-25 cm;
primary branches appressed at the base, without axillary pulvini, capillary, drooping to sinuous distally;
pedicels capillary, usually lax to sinuous.
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.
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.
= unknown.
= 22, 44, 66, 88.
Aristida purpurea var. parishii
Aristida purpurea var. purpurea
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. 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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