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.

70-150 cm, robust, purplish;

nodes glabrous or puberulent;

internodes scabridulous to almost glabrous;

fall phase branching from the mid- and upper culm nodes, developing numerous, well-separated, dense fascicles of many reduced blades and hidden secondary panicles.

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.

6-14;

sheaths not overlapping, narrowing above midlength, sparsely to densely papillose-hispid, tops mottled with pale spots, margins ciliate, collars puberulent;

ligules 0.5-1.2 mm, membranous;

blades 12-25 cm long, 7-15 mm wide, linear, stiff, ascending to spreading, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, bases subcordate to constricted, margins scabridulous, apices long tapering, involute.

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

2.2-2.8 mm long, 1-1.2 mm wide, ovoid-ellipsoid, often purplish, glabrous, rarely sparsely puberulent.

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.

0.5-1 mm, acute;

upper glumes and lower florets exceeding the upper florets, prominently 7-9-veined;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets acute to acuminate, with a minute tuft of hairs at the apices.

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades 1.5-6 cm, ovate to lanceolate.

rosettes well-differentiated;

sheaths pubescent;

blades 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 10-21 cm long, 6-13 cm wide, eventually well-exserted, with many spikelets;

rachises and branches usually glabrous and mottled.

in large clumps, with rhizomes 3-5 mm thick.

= 18.

= 18.