Flora of North America species comparison

developing from the midculm nodes and above, occasionally also at the lower nodes, several to many branches per node, branchlets of the lower branches not thornlike.

leaves: sheaths glabrous to sparsely hispidulous;

ligules 0.5-1.5 mm, glabrous, truncate, entire;

auricles 0.5-1.5 mm, falcate, hardened, persistent;

fimbriae few, 0.5-1.5 mm, spreading;

blades 6-30 cm long, 1-4 cm wide, glabrous, abruptly acuminate.

spicate, racemose, or paniculate, comprising spikelets or pseudospikelets, the spikelets lacking subtending bracts and prophylls, completing their development during 1 period of growth, the pseudospikelets having subtending bracts, prophylls, and basal bud-bearing bracts developing 2 or more orders of true spikelets with different phases of maturity.

bisexual or unisexual, with 1 to many florets.

absent or 1-2+;

lemmas without uncinate hairs, sometimes awned, awns single;

paleas well developed;

lodicules (0)3(6+), membranous, vascularized, often ciliate;

anthers usually 2, 3,or 6, rarely 10-120;

ovaries glabrous or hairy, sometimes with an apical appendage;

haustorial synergids absent;

styles or style branches 1-4.

hila linear, usually as long as the caryopses;

endosperm hard, without lipid, containing compound starch grains;

embryos small relative to the caryopses;

epiblasts present;

scutellar cleft present;

mesocotyl internode absent;

embryonic leaf margins overlapping, x = 7,9, 10, 11, 12.

leaves promptly deciduous, with dense, appressed, brown pubescence, lower sheaths broader than long, apices broader than the base of the blades;

auricles well developed, to 5 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, equal, ovoid to falcate-spreading, dark;

fimbriae to 15 mm, dense, wavy, light;

blades 4-5 cm long, 5-6 cm wide, appressed to the culm, usually persistent, triangular, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces densely dark pubescent towards the base, basal margins ciliate or with stiff hairs;

ligules about 3 mm, shortly ciliate.

woody or herbaceous, hollow or solid; often developing complex vegetative branching;

leaves distichous, if complex vegetative branching present, leaves of the culms (culm leaves) differing from those of the vegetative branches (foliage leaves);

auricles often present;

abaxial ligules rarely present on the culm leaves, usually present on the foliage leaves;

adaxial ligules membranous or chartaceous, ciliate or not;

pseudopetioles sometimes present on the culm leaves, usually present on the foliage leaves;

blades usually relatively broad, venation parallel, often with evident cross venation;

mesophyll nonradiate;

adaxial palisade layer usually absent;

fusoid cells usually well developed, large;

arm cells usually well developed and highly invaginated;

Kranz anatomy not developed;

midribs complex or simple;

stomates with dome-shaped, triangular, or more rarely parallel-sided subsidiary cells;

adaxial bulliform cells present;

bicellular microhairs present, terminal cells tapered;

papillae common and abundant.

12-35 mm, with 5-10 florets, always strongly grooved along the center, appearing 2-cleft.

= 64.