The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

pitted beardgrass, pitted bluestem

silver beardgrass, silver bluestem

Habit Plants cespitose or stoloniferous.
Culms

to 100 cm, often decumbent or stoloniferous, freely branching;

nodes bearded.

35-115(130) cm tall, usually less than 2 mm thick, erect or geniculate at the base, branched at maturity;

nodes shortly hirsute, pilose with erect hairs, or glabrous.

Leaves

mostly basal, green, sometimes glaucous;

sheaths glabrous, keeled;

ligules 0.7-1.5 mm;

blades 3-15 cm long, 3-4 mm wide, flat, margins and ligule regions hairy.

usually basal (sometimes cauline on robust plants), usually glaucous;

ligules 1-3 mm;

blades 5-25 cm long, 2-7 mm wide, flat to folded, mostly glabrous.

Panicles

3-5 cm, fan-shaped, often purplish;

rachises 0.2-2 cm, with 3-8 branches;

branches 3-4.5 cm, longer than the rachises, usually with 1 rame;

rame internodes with villous margins, with 1-3 mm hairs.

4-12(14) cm, narrowly oblong or lanceolate, silvery-white or light tan;

rachises 4-8 cm, with more than 10 branches;

branches 1-5.5 cm, erect-appressed, rarely with axillary pulvini, lower branches shorter than the rachises, usually with more than 1 rame;

rame internodes with a groove wider than the margins, margins copiously hairy, hairs 3-9 mm, at least somewhat obscuring the spikelets.

Sessile

spikelets 3-4 mm, lanceolate;

callus hairs about 1 mm;

lower glumes sparsely hirtellous, with a prominent dorsal pit near the middle;

awns 10-17 mm;

anthers 1-1.8 mm, yellow.

spikelets 2.5-4.5 mm, ovate, somewhat glaucous, apices blunt;

lower glumes glabrous or hirtellous, rarely with a dorsal pit;

awns 8-16 mm;

anthers 0.6-1.4 mm.

Pedicellate

spikelets the same size as the sessile spikelets, sterile, pitted or not, occasionally with 2 pits.

spikelets 1.5-2.5(3.5) mm, shorter than the sessile spikelets, sterile.

2n

= 40, 60.

= 60.

Bothriochloa pertusa

Bothriochloa laguroides

Distribution
from FNA
FL; LA; MD; MS; TX; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MO; MS; NE; NM; NV; OH; OK; SC; TN; TX; UT; HI
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Bothriochloa pertusa is native to the Eastern Hemisphere, and was introduced to the southern United States as a warm-season pasture grass. It now grows in disturbed, moist, grassy places and pastures in the region, at elevations of 2-200 m. It has not persisted at all locations shown on the map.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Bothriochloa laguroides grows in well-drained soils of grasslands, prairies, roadsides, river bottoms, and woodlands, often on limestone, usually at 20-2100 m. Plants from the United States and northern Mexico belong to B. laguroides subsp. torreyana (Steud.) Allred & Gould, which differs from B. laguroides (DC.) Herter subsp. laguroides in its glabrous, or almost glabrous, nodes, long internode hairs, and pilose throat region. Occasional plants are found with spreading branches and axillary pulvini; they do not merit formal recognition. Bothriochloa laguroides subsp. torreyana is used in landscaping. It does well on rocky slopes and sandy banks.

Bothriochloa laguroides has been confused with B. saccharoides (Sw.) Rydb., a more southern species that differs from B. laguroides in having pilose leaves, a narrow central groove in the internodes and pedicels, and panicle branches with axillary pulvini.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 646. FNA vol. 25, p. 640.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Bothriochloa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Bothriochloa
Sibling taxa
B. alta, B. barbinodis, B. bladhii, B. edwardsiana, B. exaristata, B. hybrida, B. ischaemum, B. laguroides, B. longipaniculata, B. springfieldii, B. wrightii
B. alta, B. barbinodis, B. bladhii, B. edwardsiana, B. exaristata, B. hybrida, B. ischaemum, B. longipaniculata, B. pertusa, B. springfieldii, B. wrightii
Synonyms Andropogon pertusus
Name authority (L.) A. Camus (DC.) Herter
Web links