Flora of North America species comparison

15-95 cm, erect or decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes.

to 135 cm.

glabrous;

ligules 0.3-0.5 mm, erose to lacerate;

blades to 15 cm long, 0.3-0.6 mm wide, with basal hairs, otherwise usually glabrous.

mostly glabrous;

ligules 0.7-1 mm, erose to lacerate;

blades to 45 cm long, to 15 mm wide, with basal hairs, otherwise usually glabrous, occasionally scabrous.

digitate, with 7-15 evidently distinct branches;

branches 3-8 cm, more or less erect, averaging 14 spikelets per cm.

digitate, with (4)8-28 evidently distinct and easily separable branches;

branches (5)8-20 cm, flexible, usually more or less spreading, sometimes drooping, averaging 12 spikelets per cm.

with 1 bisexual and 2(3) sterile florets.

strongly imbricate, with 1 bisexual and usually 2 sterile florets.

1.2-2.1 mm;

upper glumes 2.3-2.7 mm;

lowest lemmas 2-2.7 mm, ovate to elliptic, calluses and distal portion of the margins pilose, hairs to 1 mm, keels glabrous or pilose, apices awned, awns 4-7.7 mm;

second florets 0.9-1.3 mm long, 0.4-0.9 mm wide, slightly to strongly widened distally, inflated, usually glabrous, truncate, awned, awns 5-7 mm;

third florets obovoid to subspherical, smaller than the first, strongly inflated.

1-2.5 mm;

upper glumes 1.9-3.5 mm;

lowest lemmas 1.5-2.8 mm long, 0.5-0.9 mm wide, elliptic, strongly laterally compressed, margins conspicuously hairy for most of their length, hairs 1-3 mm, strongly divergent, keels densely appressed pubescent, not or only minutely bilobed, apices awned, awns 1.4-4.8 mm;

second florets 1-1.6 mm, cylindrical to narrowly turbinate, shortly bilobed, lobes less than 1/5 as long as the lemmas, awned from the sinuses, awns 1.7-4 mm;

third florets often enclosed by the first sterile florets, 0.5-0.9 mm, turbinate or flabellate, as long as or longer than the subtending rachilla segments, sometimes inflated apically, unawned.

1.1-1.4 mm.

about 1 mm long, about 0.5 mm wide.

= 20, 40, ca. 50.

= 72.