Flora of North America species comparison

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Aristida purpurea var. wrightii

Aristida purpurea var. nealleyi
Photo is of parent taxon

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

blue threeawn, Nealley three-awn, Nealley's threeawn, Reverchon three awn
Culms

45-100 cm.

20-45 cm.
Blades

10-25 cm, involute or flat.

5-15 cm, mostly basal, involute.
Panicles

(12)14-30 cm;

primary branches usually erect, without axillary pulvini, stiff, straight, lower nodes associated with 2-10 spikelets.

8-18(20) cm;

primary branches and pedicels mostly appressed to narrowly ascending, without axillary pulvini, stiff, straight, lower branches occasionally flexible.
Glumes

tan to brown, fading to stramineous.

usually unequal;

lower glumes 4-7 mm;

upper glumes (7)8-14 mm;

lemmas 7-13 mm long, narrowing to about 0.1 mm wide, upper portion sometimes twisted;

awns 15-22(30) mm long, subequal, about 0.1 mm wide at the base.
Lower glumes

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.

2n

= 22, 44, 66.

= 22, 44.

Aristida purpurea var. wrightii

Aristida purpurea var. nealleyi
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; OK; TX; UT
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; IL; KS; NM; NV; OK; TX; UT; VT
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Aristida purpurea var. nealleyi grows on dry slopes and plains at lower elevations than the other varieties, frequently in desert grassland vegetation. Its range extends from the southwestern United States into Mexico. Although var. nealleyi is more distinct than the other varieties, having tight tufts of foliage exceeded by narrow, straw-colored panicles, it grades into var. purpurea, and the panicles resemble those of var. wrightii. It may also be confused with A. arizonica, but differs in having involute, generally straight leaf blades and shorter awns.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 333. FNA vol. 25, p. 333.
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. parishii, A. purpurea var. perplexa, A. purpurea var. purpurea
A. purpurea var. fendleriana, A. purpurea var. longiseta, A. purpurea var. parishii, A. purpurea var. perplexa, A. purpurea var. purpurea, A. purpurea var. wrightii
Synonyms A. wrightii A. purpurea var. glauca, A. glauca
Name authority (Nash) Allred (Vasey) Allred
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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