Crypsis vaginiflora
Crypsis
African prickle grass, modest prickle grass
prickle grass
1-30 cm, often profusely branching above the base, with 10-25 panicles per culm.
1-75 cm, erect to geniculately ascending, sometimes branching above the base;
nodes usually exposed.
pilose on the margins;
collars pilose;
blades 1-5 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, soon disarticulating, thus many leaves on mature plants are bladeless.
open, often becoming inflated, junction with the blades evident;
ligules of hairs;
auricles absent;
blades often disarticulating.
0.3-1.5(3.5) cm long, 3-6(10) mm wide, 1-5 times longer than wide, sessile or almost so, mostly included in the sheaths of the upper 2 leaves.
terminal or terminal and axillary, spikelike or capitate panicles subtended by, and often partially enclosed in, 1 or more of the uppermost leaf sheaths, additional panicles often present in the axils of the leaves below.
2.5-3.2 mm, readily disarticulating when disturbed, otherwise retained within the upper sheaths.
2-6 mm, strongly laterally compressed, with 1 floret;
florets bisexua;
disarticulation above or below the glumes.
about 3 mm, subequal;
lower glumes pilose on the margins;
lemmas subequal to the glumes;
paleas minutely 2-veined;
anthers 3, 0.5-0.9 mm.
1-veined, strongly keeled;
lemmas membranous, glabrous, 1-veined, strongly keeled, not lobed, unawned, sometimes mucronate;
paleas hyaline, 1-2-veined;
lodicules absent;
anthers 2 or 3;
ovaries glabrous.
1.3-1.7 mm.
oblong, pericarp loosely enclosing the seed and easily removed when wet;
hila punctate, x = 8.
= 48.
Crypsis vaginiflora
Crypsis
Crypsis vaginiflora is common to abundant in clay or sandy clay soil in California, where it was first introduced in the late 1800s. It has since been found at a few locations in Washington, Idaho, and Nevada, and will probably spread to additional sites with suitable habitat in the future. It is native to Egypt and southwestern Asia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Crypsis, a genus of eight species, is native from the Mediterranean region to northern China. Its species tend to occur in moist soils, often in areas subject to winter flooding. The three species found in the Flora region are very plastic in the lengths of their culms and leaves, e.g., the culms of C. schoenoides vary from 2 cm in dry sites to 75 cm under optimal conditions.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Spikelets 1.5-2.8 mm long; panicles 7-8 times longer than wide, usually completely exserted from the uppermost sheath at maturity | C. alopecuroides |
1. Spikelets 2.5-4 mm long; panicles 1-5 times longer than wide, the bases usually enclosed in the uppermost sheath at maturity. | → 2 |
2. Collars glabrous; glumes unequal in length, the margins glabrous; anthers 0.7-1.1 mm long | C. scboenoides |
2. Collars pilose; glumes subequal, at least the lower glumes pilose on the margin; anthers 0.5-0.9 mm long | C. vaginiflora |
CA
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
OR
IL Wildflowers
MI Flora
MO Plants
