Flora of North America species comparison

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Aristida purpurea var. perplexa
Photo is of parent taxon

Jornada threeawn, purple threeawn
Culms

30-65 cm.
Blades

8-20 cm, involute.
Panicles

8-20 cm;

primary branches stiff, lower branches diverging or divaricate, with axillary pulvini, upper branches usually strongly divergent, sometimes ascending;

pedicels often with axillary pulvini;

terminal spikelets usually appressed.
Glumes

reddish;

lower glumes (4.5)5-7(7.5) mm, 1/2 - 2/3 as long as the upper glumes;

upper glumes 8-11(12) mm;

lemmas (8)10-12(13) mm long, narrowing to 0.1-0.2 mm wide;

awns subequal, (13)18-30 mm long, 0.1-0.2 mm wide.
2n

= unknown.

Aristida purpurea var. perplexa
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; NM; TX
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Aristida purpurea var. perplexa grows in sandy to rocky plains and on mesas in desert grassland and scrub communities, often in calcareous soils, in both the Flora region and Mexico. It is sometimes confused with A. pansa, which differs in having cobwebby hairs at the collar, equal glumes, and shorter awns.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 333.
Parent taxa 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. parishii, A. purpurea var. purpurea, A. purpurea var. wrightii
Name authority Allred & Valdes-Reyna
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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