Flora of North America species comparison

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Bothriochloa ischaemum

King ranch bluestem, old world bluestem, yellow bluestem
Habit Plants usually cespitose, occasionally stoloniferous or almost rhizomatous under close grazing or cutting.
Culms

30-80(95) cm, stiffly erect;

nodes glabrous or short hirsute.
Leaves

tending to be basal;

ligules 0.5-1.5 mm;

blades 5-25 cm long, 2-4.5 mm wide, flat to folded, glabrous or with long, scattered hairs at the base of the blade.
Panicles

5-10 cm, fan-shaped, silvery reddish-purple;

rachises 0.5-2 cm, with (1)2-8 branches;

branches 3-9 cm, longer than the rachises, erect to somewhat spreading from the axillary pulvini, usually with only 1 rame;

rame internodes with a central groove narrower than the margins, margins ciliate, with 1-3 mm hairs.
Sessile

spikelets 3-4.5 mm, narrowly ovate;

lower glumes hirsute below, with about 1 mm hairs, lacking a dorsal pit;

awns 9-17 mm, twisted, geniculate;

anthers 1-2 mm.
Pedicellate

spikelets about as long as the sessile spikelets, but usually narrower, sterile or staminate.
2n

= 40, 50, 60.

Bothriochloa ischaemum
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; FL; GA; KS; LA; MS; NM; NY; OH; OK; SC; TN; TX; UT; PR; Virgin Islands
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Bothriochloa ischaemum. grows along roadsides and in waste ground and rangeland pastures, at 50-1200 m. It is native to southern Europe and Asia. It was introduced to the United States for erosion control along right of ways and for livestock forage in the southwest. It is now established in the region and has spread along roadsides into other central and southern states. There are two variants that are sometimes recognized as varieties, plants with glabrous nodes being called B. ischaemum var. ischaemum and plants with pubescent nodes being called B. ischaemum var. songarica (Rupr. ex Fisch. & C.A. Mey.) Celarier & J.R. Harlan. The varieties are not recognized here.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 646.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Bothriochloa
Sibling taxa
B. alta, B. barbinodis, B. bladhii, B. edwardsiana, B. exaristata, B. hybrida, B. laguroides, B. longipaniculata, B. pertusa, B. springfieldii, B. wrightii
Synonyms B. ischaemum var. songarica, Andropogon ischaemum var. songaricus, Andropogon ischaemum
Name authority (L.) Keng
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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