Aristida purpurea var. parishii
Aristida purpurea var. wrightii
Parish three-awn, Parish's threeawn
Wright three-awn, Wright's threeawn
20-50 cm.
45-100 cm.
mostly cauline;
blades more than 10 cm, loosely involute to flat.
10-25 cm, involute or flat.
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.
(12)14-30 cm;
primary branches usually erect, without axillary pulvini, stiff, straight, lower nodes associated with 2-10 spikelets.
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.
tan to brown, fading to stramineous.
5-10 mm;
upper glumes 9-16 mm;
lemmas 8-14 mm long, narrowing to 0.2-0.3 mm wide;
awns (8)20-35 mm long, 0.2-0.3 mm wide at the base, lateral awns usually subequal to the central awn, rarely 1-3 mm.
= unknown.
= 22, 44, 66.
Aristida purpurea var. parishii
Aristida purpurea var. wrightii
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. wrightii grows on sandy to gravelly hills and flats from the southwestern United States to southern Mexico. It is the most robust variety of A. purpurea, and has dark, stout awns and long panicles. It may be confused with var. nealleyi, which has narrower lemmas and awns and a light-colored panicle, but it also intergrades with var. purpurea and var. parishii. Aristida purpurea forma brownii (Warnock) Allred & Valdes-Reyna refers to plants with short central awns and lateral awns that are only 1-3 mm long.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
