Flora of North America species comparison

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

Calamagrostis koelerioides

Calamagrostis nutkaensis

dense-pine reed grass, fire reedgrass

Nootka reedgrass, Pacific reed grass, reedgrass
Habit Plants without sterile culms; often densely cespitose, with rhizomes 2-6 cm long, 2-4 mm thick. Plants sometimes with sterile culms; densely cespitose, with rhizomes usually shorter than 3 cm, rarely to 6 cm long, 1.5-3 mm thick.
Culms

(26)60-85(120) cm, unbranched, slightly scabrous;

nodes 2-3(5).

(42)55-105 (150) cm, stout, unbranched, smooth or slightly scabrous beneath the panicles;

nodes 1-2(3).
Sheaths

and collars usually scabrous, rarely smooth, glabrous;

ligules (1.5) 2-4.5(7) mm, truncate to obtuse, entire or sometimes lacerate;

blades (2)9-20(30) cm long, (2)2.5-4.5(8) mm wide, flat, slightly scabrous, adaxial surfaces glabrous or sparsely hairy.

and collars smooth;

ligules (0.5)1-4(5.5) mm, usually truncate, entire, often hidden by the expanded collars;

blades (4)10-41(56) cm long, (2)4-10(20) mm wide, flat, usually erect, abaxial surfaces smooth, adaxial surfaces smooth or slightly scabrous, glabrous or sparsely hairy.
Panicles

(4)10-13(16) cm long, about 1 cm wide, contracted, erect to slightly nodding, often slightly interrupted towards the base, straw-colored or pale green to pale purple;

branches (1.1)2.8-4(6) cm, scabrous, spikelet-bearing to the base.

(8)12-23(33) cm long, (1.1)2-4.5(9) cm wide, contracted to somewhat loose, erect to slightly nodding, greenish yellow to purple-tinged;

branches 2.7-7(10.5) cm long, sparsely scabrous, spikelets usually confined to the distal 1/2.
Spikelets

(4)4.5-6(7) mm;

rachilla prolongations 1.5-2.5(3) mm, hairs 1.5-2 mm.

4.5-6.5(8) mm;

rachilla prolongations 0.5-1 mm, hairs 1-1.5 mm.
Glumes

slightly keeled, keels smooth or slightly scabrous distally, lateral veins visible but not prominent, apices acute;

callus hairs 1.5-2 mm, 0.3-0.4 times as long as the lemmas, sparse;

lemmas (3.5)4-5(6) mm, 0.5-1.5 mm shorter than the glumes;

awns 4-5.5 mm, attached to the lower 1/10 – 1/5 of the lemmas, exserted, sometimes barely so, stout, distinguishable from the callus hairs, bent;

anthers 2-3.5 mm.

keeled, smooth or infrequently scabrous on the keels, lateral veins somewhat prominent, apices acuminate;

callus hairs (1)2-2.5(3) mm, (0.2)0.5-0.7 times as long as the lemmas, sparse;

lemmas (3)4-4.5(5) mm, (0.4)0.8-1.2(1.9) mm shorter than the glumes;

awns 1-3 mm, attached on the lower 1/3-1/2 of the lemmas, not exserted, easily distinguished from the callus hairs, straight or slightly bent;

anthers (1)2.4-2.6(3.3) mm.
2n

= 28.

= 28.

Calamagrostis koelerioides

Calamagrostis nutkaensis
Distribution
from FNA
CA; ID; MT; OR; WA; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; CA; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Calamagrostis koelerioides grows in mountain meadows, chaparral, and Jeffrey pine and blue spruce forests, and on talus slopes, dry hills, and ridges, occasionally on serpentine soils, at 50-2100 m. It extends from Washington south to southern California and east to Montana and western Wyoming.

Calamagrostis koelerioides is similar to C. rubescens (p. 723). The two have traditionally been distinguished by the presence of hairs on the leaf collars in C. rubescens, and their absence in C. koelerioides; a more reliable differentiation is the longer lemmas, glumes, and awns of C. koelerioides compared to C. rubescens.

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

Calamagrostis nutkaensis grows in wetlands and openings in coniferous forests, on marine and freshwater beaches and dunes, and, sometimes, on cliffs. It is usually found within a few kilometers of the marine shoreline at or near sea level, but it sometimes occurs as high as 800 m on the Brooks Peninsula of Vancouver Island, British Columbia; at 700 m and 1100 m in the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon; and at 1100 m on Bald Mountain, California. It grows along the Pacific coast of North America from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to San Luis Obispo County, California, and also in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia.

A hybrid between Calamagrostis nutkaensis and Ammophila arenaria (p. 777) was reported in the 1970s from the vicinity of Newport-Waldport in coastal Oregon, where both species grow (Kenton Chambers, pers. comm.). There is no voucher to support this report.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 24, p. 720. FNA vol. 24, p. 724.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Calamagrostis Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Calamagrostis
Sibling taxa
C. bolanderi, C. breweri, C. cainii, C. canadensis, C. cinnoides, C. deschampsioides, C. epigejos, C. foliosa, C. howellii, C. lapponica, C. montanensis, C. muiriana, C. nutkaensis, C. ophitidis, C. perplexa, C. pickeringii, C. porteri, C. purpurascens, C. rubescens, C. scopulorum, C. sesquiflora, C. stricta, C. tacomensis, C. tweedyi, C. ×acutiflora
C. bolanderi, C. breweri, C. cainii, C. canadensis, C. cinnoides, C. deschampsioides, C. epigejos, C. foliosa, C. howellii, C. koelerioides, C. lapponica, C. montanensis, C. muiriana, C. ophitidis, C. perplexa, C. pickeringii, C. porteri, C. purpurascens, C. rubescens, C. scopulorum, C. sesquiflora, C. stricta, C. tacomensis, C. tweedyi, C. ×acutiflora
Name authority Vasey (J. Presl) Steud.
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers