Flora of North America species comparison

1.3-2.5 m tall, 2-4 mm wide, stiffly erect, not or only sparingly branched;

nodes hirsute, hairs 2-6 mm, stiff, spreading, tan;

internodes glaucous below the nodes.

annual, usually solid, sometimes somewhat woody, sometimes decumbent, often branched above the base.

cauline;

ligules 1-3 mm;

blades 20-30 cm long, 4-10 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose near the base.

distichous;

sheaths usually open;

auricles usually absent;

abaxial ligules usually absent, occasionally present as a line of hairs;

adaxial ligules membranous, sometimes also ciliate, or of hairs, sometimes absent;

blades sometimes pseudopetiolate;

mesophyll radiate or non-radiate;

adaxial palisade layer absent;

fusoid cells usually absent;

arm cells usually absent;

kranz anatomy absent or present;

midribs usually simple, rarely complex;

adaxial bulliform cells present;

stomata with triangular or dome-shaped subsidiary cells;

bicellular microhairs usually present, with a long, narrow distal cell;

papillae absent or present.

14-25 cm long on the larger shoots, 3-6 cm wide when pressed, oblong, dense;

rachises 10-20 cm, with numerous branches, rachises and branches kinked and wavy at the base from being compressed in the sheath;

branches 2-8 cm, much shorter than the rachises, erect to appressed, with multiple rames;

rame internodes villous on the margins, with 5-8 mm distal hairs.

ebracteate (Paniceae) or bracteate (most Andropogoneae) panicles, racemes, spikes, or complex arrangements of rames (in the Andropogoneae), usually bisexual, sometimes unisexual;

disarticulation usually below the glumes, frequently in the secondary and higher order axes of the inflorescences.

bisexual or unisexual, frequently paired or in triplets, the members of each unit usually with pedicels of different lengths or 1 spikelet sessile.

usually 2, equal or unequal, shorter or longer than the adjacent florets, sometimes exceeding the distal florets;

florets 2(-4), usually dorsally compressed, sometimes terete or laterally compressed;

lower florets sterile or staminate, frequently reduced to a lemma;

upper florets usually bisexual;

lemmas hyaline to coriaceous, lacking uncinate hairs, often terminally awned;

awns single;

paleas of bisexual florets well-developed, reduced, or absent;

lodicules usually 2, sometimes absent, cuneate, free, fleshy, usually glabrous;

anthers 1-3;

ovaries usually glabrous;

haustorial synergids absent;

style branches 2, free and close or fused at the base.

hila usually punctate;

endosperm hard, without lipid;

starch grains simple;

embryos large in relation to the caryopses, usually waisted;

epiblasts usually absent;

scutellar cleft present;

mesocotyl internode elongated;

embryonic leaf margins usually overlapping, rarely just meeting, x = 5, (7), 9, 10, (12), (14).

spikelets 4.5-6 mm, ovate;

lower glumes shortly pilose, with or without a dorsal pit;

awns 18-22 mm;

anthers about 1 mm, often remaining in the floret, light brown.

spikelets 3.8-4.4 mm.

= 120.