Flora of North America species comparison

30-60 cm, slender.

5-40 cm, erect or ascending.

pilose-pubescent to nearly glabrous;

blades 7-28 cm long, 2-9 mm wide, pilose or glabrous.

glabrous or pubescent;

ligules 1.2-2.6 mm, puberulent, obtuse, laciniate;

blades 2-15 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, pubescent on both surfaces.

10-20 cm long, 3-9 cm wide, erect, dense;

branches appressed to spreading, sometimes flexuous.

2-12 cm long, 1-5 cm wide, dense, ovoid, stiffly erect, sometimes racemose;

branches shorter than the spikelets, ascending, slightly curved or straight.

15-20 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, more or less terete, with 3-9 florets.

10-40(45) mm long, 4-10 mm wide, lanceolate to elliptic or oblong, laterally compressed;

florets 5-8(10), bases concealed at maturity;

rachilla internodes concealed at maturity.

glabrous, acuminate;

lower glumes 8-10 mm, 1-veined;

upper glumes 12-16 mm, 3(5)-veined;

lemmas 11-14 mm, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, sparsely pubescent, 5-veined, rounded over the midvein, apices acuminate, bifid, teeth 2-3 mm, usually aristate, sometimes acuminate;

awns 13-20 mm, geniculate, strongly to moderately twisted in the basal portion, arising 1.5 mm or more below the lemma apices;

anthers 2-2.5 mm.

glabrous or pubescent;

lower glumes 5-8.5 mm, 3-5-veined, lanceolate;

upper glumes 6.5-9.5 mm, 7-9(11)-veined, elliptic;

lemmas 8-12(13.5) mm long, 6-7 mm wide, oblanceolate, veins glabrous, scabridulous, or ciliolate, glabrous or pubescent elsewhere, 9-11-veined, rounded over the midvein, margins broadly hyaline, bluntly angled above the middle, not inrolled at maturity, apices subulate to acute or obtuse, toothed, teeth shorter than 1 mm;

awns usually 3 on the upper lemmas in each spikelet, arising 2-4 mm below the lemma apices, purple or deep red, central awn 5-25 mm, flattened at the base, divaricate and sometimes twisted at maturity, lateral awns 4-10 mm, erect or reflexed, sometimes absent or much reduced on the lower lemmas;

anthers 1-1.8 mm.

equaling or shorter than the paleas, thin, weakly inrolled or flat.

= unknown.

= 14.