Bothriochloa springfieldii |
Bothriochloa |
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Springfield bluestem, Springfield's beardgrass |
beardgrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose or stoloniferous. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Culms | 30-80 cm, erect, unbranched; nodes prominently bearded, hairs 3-7 mm, spreading, silvery-white. |
30-250 cm, with pithy internodes. |
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Leaves | mostly basal; ligules 1-2.5 mm; blades 5-30 cm long, 2-3(5) mm wide, flat to folded, glabrous or sparsely hispid adaxially, pilose near the throat. |
basal or cauline, not aromatic; sheaths open; auricles absent; ligules membranous, sometimes also ciliate; blades usually flat, convolute in the bud. |
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Panicles | 4-9 cm, oblong to fan-shaped; rachises 1-5 cm, with 2-9 branches; branches 4-8 cm, longer than the rachises, with 1(2) rames; rame internodes with a membranous groove wider than the margins, margins densely white-villous, hairs 5-10 mm, obscuring the sessile spikelets. |
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Inflorescences | terminal, panicles of subdigitate to racemosely arranged branches, each branch with (1)2-many rames, branches not subtended by modified leaves; rames with spikelets in heterogamous sessile-pedicellate pairs, internodes with a translucent, longitudinal groove, often villous on the margins; disarticulation in the rames, beneath the sessile spikelets. |
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Spikelets | dorsally compressed; sessile spikelets with 2 florets; lower glumes rounded, several-veined, sometimes with a dorsal pit, margins clasping the upper glume; upper glumes somewhat keeled, 3-veined; lower florets hyaline scales, unawned; upper florets bisexual; upper lemmas with a midvein that usually extends into a twisted, geniculate awn, occasionally unawned; anthers 3. |
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Caryopses | lanceolate to oblong, somewhat flattened; hila punctate, basal; embryos about Yi as long as the caryopses. |
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Pedicels | similar to the internodes. |
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Sessile | spikelets 5.5-8.5 mm, lanceolate; lower glumes densely short-pilose on the lower M, sometimes with a dorsal pit; awns 18-26 mm; anthers 1-1.5 mm. |
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Pedicellate | spikelets 3.5-5.5 mm, sterile. |
spikelets reduced or well-developed, sterile or staminate, unawned. |
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x | = 10. |
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2n | = 120. |
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Bothriochloa springfieldii |
Bothriochloa |
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Distribution |
AZ; CO; LA; NM; TX; UT |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NE; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; SC; TN; TX; UT; HI; PR; Virgin Islands |
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Discussion | Bothriochloa springfieldii grows in rocky uplands, ravines, plains, sandy areas, and roadsides, from southern Utah to western Texas and Mexico at 900-2500 m. and, as a disjunct in northwest Louisiana. It differs from B. barbinodis in its less robust habit, narrower blades, longer nodal hairs, and fewer, more hairy panicle branches, and from B. edwardsiana in its pubescent nodes and wider, non-ciliate leaf blades. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Bothriochloa is a genus of about 35 species that grow in tropical to warm-temperate regions. Nine are native to the Flora region; three Eastern Hemisphere species have been introduced into the southern United States for forage and range rehabilitation. Most species provide fair forage in summer and fall. Polyploidy has been an important mechanism of speciation in the genus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 644. | FNA vol. 25, p. 639. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Bothriochloa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Andropogon springfieldii | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Gould) Parodi | Kuntze | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |