Flora of North America species comparison

40-130 cm, to 1 mm thick at the nodes, unbranched, leafy for 50% of their height.

to 4 m tall, not woody, glabrous;

internodes solid or hollow.

glabrous;

collars glabrous;

ligules 0.2-0.4 mm, entire;

blades (8)15-35(40) cm long, 3-8(11) mm wide, linear-lanceolate, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely pilose adaxially.

open;

auricles sometimes present;

ligules scarious or membranous, truncate, sometimes ciliolate;

pseudopetiole present in some genera;

blades flat, relatively wide, usually with evident cross venation (not in Chasmanthium), not disarticulating from the sheaths.

(7)12-35(47) cm, contracted, erect;

branches ascending to appressed;

axils of panicle branches glabrous;

pedicels 0.5-2.5 mm.

terminal, paniculate, sometimes with spicate branches.

4-9 mm long, 2-6 mm wide, with (2)3-5(7) florets, lower 1(2) florets sterile, fertile florets divergent to 45°.

solitary, pedicellate or subsessile, laterally compressed, with 1-many florets, bisexual, pistillate or staminate, lowest and distal florets often sterile;

rachillas terminating in a rudimentary floret;

disarticulation variable, at the base of the pedicels, below the glumes, above the glumes, beneath the florets, between the florets, or some combination of these.

sometimes lacking, if present, membranous, shorter than the florets, 2-9-veined, acute to obtuse;

lowest florets sometimes sterile, with or without paleas;

upper lemmas membranous, 3-15-veined, unawned or awned;

upper paleas nearly as long as the lemmas, apices entire or notched;

lodicules 2, free (rarely fused in some genera), cuneate, truncate or somewhat lobed;

anthers 1, 2, or 3.

1.3-3 mm, (1)3-5-veined;

upper glumes 1.3-2.5 mm, 3-5-veined;

calluses glabrous;

fertile lemmas 2.9-4.5 mm, straight, 3-7-veined, keels not winged, apices scabridulous;

paleas 2.3-3 mm;

anthers 1.3-1.5 mm, the length invariant within a spikelet.

1.9-2.2 mm, exposed at maturity.

ellipsoid to circular, or trigonous;

embryos about 1/3 or less as long as the caryopses;

hila subbasal to basal, punctate, x = 12.

= 24.