Flora of North America species comparison

50-150 cm, usually robust, erect;

nodes often swollen, densely bearded with thin retrorse hairs above a constricted, glabrous, viscid ring;

internodes grayish-purple, velvety-pubescent;

fall phase branching from the mid- and upper culm nodes, with long, repeatedly forking and often recurving branches, ultimately with fascicles of reduced blades and included 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.

7-11;

sheaths not overlapping, narrowing distally, lustrous, bases sparsely to densely retrorsely villous, hairs papillose-based, summits purplish, with yellowish spots;

collars densely villous;

ligules 0.5-2 mm, of hairs;

blades 9-20 cm long, 9-20 mm wide, thick, densely soft pubescent, bases rounded to subcordate, margins ciliate basally.

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.

2.2-2.8 mm long, 1.3-1.5 mm wide, ovoid-ellipsoid, often purplish basally, prominently veined, margins and apices sparsely to densely pubescent, hairs papillose-based.

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

0.6-1.3 mm, subtruncate to acuminate;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets minutely apiculate.

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 sometimes more than 10 cm, lanceolate.

rosettes well-differentiated;

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

panicles 6-16 cm long, 5-12 cm wide, well-exserted, dense;

rachises softly pubescent basally;

branches often mottled with purplish viscid spots, glabrous.

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

branches wiry, mostly spreading, minutely scabridulous.

= 18.

= 18.