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.

10-40 cm tall, 0.2-0.8 (1.6) mm thick, weak, erect or reclining;

nodes usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely bearded;

internodes usually glabrous, occasionally sparsely pubescent;

fall phase with spreading culms, sparingly branched, branching mostly from the midculm nodes, occasionally producing small fascicles of leafy branchlets.

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.

4-9;

sheaths much shorter than the internodes, prominently veined, glabrous or sparsely pilose and ciliate, particularly at the top;

ligules 0.2-1.8 mm, often more than 1 mm, of hairs, without adjacent pseudoligules;

blades 1.5-3.5 cm long (seldom longer), 1.5-4 mm wide, all similar in size, thin, spreading or reflexed, abaxial surfaces puberulent, at least apically, or sparsely pilose, adaxial surfaces glabrous or sparsely pilose, at least basally, bases abruptly and strongly constricted, occasionally ciliate, margins entire or faintly scabridulous, rarely white-cartilaginous.

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

1.2-1.5 mm, ellipsoid to obovoid, yellow-green to purplish, puberulent or glabrous, subacute or obtuse.

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.

seldom more than 1/4 as long as the spikelets, acute or obtuse;

upper glumes usually slightly shorter than the lower lemmas and upper florets, not strongly veined;

upper florets 1.1-1.4 mm long, less than 1 mm wide, ellipsoid, acute.

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades 1.5-6 cm, ovate to lanceolate.

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades 1.5-6 cm, ovate to lanceolate, soft, glabrous.

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 1.5-4 cm, nearly as wide as long, long-exserted;

branches wiry, mostly spreading, minutely scabridulous.

= 18.

= 18.