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Arizona ryegrass, Arizona wheatgrass, Arizona wildrye

Habit Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous.
Culms

45-100 cm, erect or decumbent at the base;

nodes glabrous or almost so.

Leaves

evenly distributed over the lower 1/2 of the culms;

sheaths glabrous;

auricles usually present, to 1 mm;

ligules to 1 mm on the basal leaves, 1-3 mm on the flag leaves;

blades 2.5-6 mm wide, lax, abaxial surfaces smooth and glabrous, adaxial surfaces scabrous, with scattered 0.5-1 mm hairs, veins close together.

Spikes

12-25 cm long, 2.5-6 cm wide including the awns, 10-15 mm wide excluding the awns, flexuous, usually nodding or pendent at maturity, with 1 spikelet per node;

internodes 11-17 mm long, 0.4-1 mm wide, glabrous, mostly smooth, scabrous on the edges.

Spikelets

14-26 mm long, 6-8 mm wide, appressed to divergent, 1.5-2 times as long as the internodes, with 4-6 florets;

rachillas glabrous;

disarticulation above the glumes and beneath each floret.

Glumes

narrowly lanceolate, margins about 0.2 mm wide, 3(5)-veined, the bases flat, evidently veined, margins hyaline, widest at about midlength, acute or acuminate, unawned or awned, awns to 4 mm, straight;

lower glumes 5-9 mm;

upper glumes 8-10 mm;

lemmas 8-15 mm, scabrous, rounded on the back, awns 10-25 mm, arcuately diverging;

paleas as long as or longer than the lemmas, tapering, apices truncate, about 0.3 mm wide;

anthers 3-5 mm.

2n

= 28.

Elymus arizonicus

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NM; TX
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Elymus arizonicus grows in moist, rocky soil in mountain canyons of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. When mature, the drooping spike and solitary spikelets make E. arizonicus easy to identify. Immature specimens, or those mounted so that the spike appears erect, are easily mistaken for Pseudoroegneria spicata (p. 281), but they have thicker culms and longer ligules, more basal leaves, and wider leaf blades.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 24, p. 329.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Triticeae > Elymus
Sibling taxa
E. alaskanus, E. albicans, E. bakeri, E. canadensis, E. caninus, E. churchii, E. ciliaris, E. curvatus, E. dahuricus, E. diversiglumis, E. elymoides, E. glabriflorus, E. glaucus, E. hirsutus, E. hoffmannii, E. hystrix, E. interruptus, E. lanceolatus, E. macgregorii, E. macrourus, E. multisetus, E. pringlei, E. repens, E. riparius, E. scribneri, E. semicostatus, E. sibiricus, E. sierrae, E. stebbinsii, E. svensonii, E. texensis, E. trachycaulus, E. tsukushiensis, E. villosus, E. violaceus, E. virginicus, E. wawawaiensis, E. wiegandii, E. ×cayouetteorum, E. ×ebingeri, E. ×hansenii, E. ×palmerensis, E. ×pinalenoensis, E. ×pseudorepens, E. ×saundersii, E. ×yukonensis
Synonyms Pseudoroegneria arizonica, Agropyron arizonicum
Name authority (Scribn. & J.G. Sm.) Gould
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