Flora of North America species comparison

5-45 cm, slender, erect or spreading;

from a dense tuft of predominantly basal leaves, lower internodes short, upper 3-5 internodes elongate;

nodes glabrous or bearded;

internodes glabrous or pilose;

fall phase with spreading culms and branches arising from near the bases forming a dense, flat tuft.

25-75 cm, 2-3 mm thick, erect, purplish;

nodes densely bearded with spreading to retrorse hairs above a glabrous ring;

internodes pilose or ascending hirsute, hairs papillose-based, also puberulent;

fall phase with nearly erect culms, branching from the mid- and upper culm nodes;

branches short, ascending, bushy, with several reduced, partly enclosed secondary panicles.

2-4;

lower cauline sheaths longer than the internodes, mostly glabrous or pilose with ascending hairs, margins finely ciliate;

ligules 0.2-2 mm, at low magnification appearing to be membranous and ciliate, at high magnification evidently of hairs that are coherent at the base;

blades 1.5-6 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, lanceolate, glabrous or softly pilose, margins with prominent papillose-based cilia, at least basally.

4-6;

sheaths not overlapping, papillose-hirsute and puberulent;

collars densely pubescent;

ligules 2-5 mm, of hairs;

blades 8-17 cm long, 8-18 mm wide, lanceolate, stiff, thick, abaxial surfaces densely soft-pubescent, velvety, adaxial surfaces glabrous or sparsely pilose, with 9-11 major veins slightly more prominent than the minor veins, bases rounded or subcordate, margins with papillose-based cilia, apices acuminate.

1.1-2.1 mm, obovoid to broadly ellipsoid, glabrous or pubescent, hairs not papillose-based.

3.7-4.3 mm long, 1.6-2.1 mm wide, obovoid, turgid, often shiny, sparsely pustulose-villous.

1/3 - 1/2 as long as the spikelets, acute to obtuse;

upper florets 0.8-1.7 mm, ellipsoid, subacute.

1.8-2.5 mm, loose, strongly veined, acute;

upper glumes shorter than the spikelets, strongly veined, purplish at the base;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets with a minute tuft of hairs around the umbonate apices.

rosettes poorly differentiated;

blades 1-5 cm, lanceolate, grading into the cauline blades.

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades 3-8 cm, ovate to lanceolate.

panicles short- to long-exserted;

rachises and branches often pilose.

panicles 5-11 cm, almost as wide as long, shortly exserted, with few spikelets;

rachises and branches scabridulous and finely pubescent, hairs papillose-based.

= 18.