Flora of North America species comparison

15-50 cm, slender, wiry;

internodes olive green to purplish, densely puberulent or glabrous;

fall phase spreading or decumbent, branching extensively from the lower and midculm nodes, producing numerous congested fascicles of reduced, flat or involute blades and reduced secondary panicles.

5-45 cm tall, 0.2-0.8 mm thick, erect, often purplish;

nodes glabrous or sparsely pubescent;

internodes often ascending-pubescent below;

fall phase branching extensively from the basal nodes, usually forming very dense cushions.

4-7;

sheaths much shorter than the internodes, densely crisp-puberulent, velvety-puberulent, or glabrous, often ciliate along the margins;

ligules shorter than 0.5 mm;

blades 2-7 cm long (seldom longer), 2.5-8 mm wide (rarely wider), spreading, firm, flat or slightly involute, without prominently raised veins, not longitudinally wrinkled, densely puberulent or glabrous abaxially, glabrous, sparsely puberulent, or pubescent adaxially, bases subcordate, with papillose-based cilia, margins often whitish and scabridulous.

3-5;

sheaths mostly shorter than the internodes, often purplish, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, margins often sparsely ciliate;

ligules 0.2-0.5 mm, of hairs, without adjacent pseudoligules;

blades 2-5 cm long (rarely longer), 1-4 mm wide, flat or involute, rather firm, ascending, often purplish, usually glabrous on both surfaces, bases subcordate, often with a few long, stiff cilia, margins narrowly white, cartilaginous, and scabridulous, blades of the flag leaves only slightly shorter than those of the lower leaves.

1.5-2.6 mm, obovoid-pyriform, planoconvex in side view, puberulent, pubescent, or glabrous, attenuate basally, apices usually broadly rounded.

1.1-1.5 mm long, 0.7-1 mm wide, broadly ellipsoid or obovoid, often purple-tinged, glabrous or puberulent, obtuse or subacute.

0.6-1.4 mm, thin, weakly-veined, attached about 0.2 mm below the upper glumes, clasping at the base;

upper glumes as long as or slightly shorter than the lower lemmas;

upper florets 1.4-2 mm, broadly ellipsoid, apices subacute, minutely puberulent.

approximately 1/3 as long as the spikelets, broadly acute or obtuse;

upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal or the glumes slightly shorter than the lemmas;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets 0.9-1.2 mm, ellipsoid, apices exceeding the upper glumes and lower lemmas, subacute.

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades 1.5-6 cm, ovate to lanceolate.

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades 1-5 cm, ovate to lanceolate.

panicles 2-7 cm long, 2/3 to nearly as wide as long, with relatively few spikelets, exserted;

branches flexuous, spreading or reflexed, scabridulous to densely puberulent.

panicles 1.5-5 cm (seldom longer), nearly as wide as long, delicate, dense;

branches numerous, flexuous, spreading, often purplish, glabrous or faintly scabridulous.

= 18.