Elymus canadensis
Elymus albicans
Canada wild rye, Canadian wild rye, Great Plains wild-rye, élyme du Canada
Montana wheatgrass, Montana wild rye
(40)60-150(180) cm, erect or decumbent;
nodes 4-10, mostly concealed by the leaf sheaths, glabrous.
40-100 cm, erect or decumbent only at the base, glabrous.
evenly distributed;
sheaths smooth or scabridulous, glabrous or hirsute, often reddish brown;
auricles 1.5-4 mm, brown or purplish black;
ligules to 1(2) mm, truncate, ciliolate;
blades (3)4-15(20) mm wide, usually firm, often ascending and somewhat involute, usually dull green, drying to grayish, adaxial surfaces usually smooth or scabridulous and glabrous, rarely sparsely hispid to villous.
somewhat basally concentrated;
sheaths glabrous;
auricles usually present, to 0.8 mm;
ligules 0.2-0.5 mm, ciliolate;
blades 1-3 mm wide, usually involute, adaxial surfaces scabrous to strigose.
6-30 cm long, 3-7 cm wide, usually nodding, sometimes pendent or almost erect, usually with 2(3) spikelets per node, occasionally to 5 at some nodes, rarely with 1 at some nodes but never throughout;
internodes (2)3-5(7) mm long, or 5-10 mm long towards the base, 0.2-0.35 mm thick at the thinnest sections, glabrous or with a few hairs below the spikelets.
4-14 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide including the awns, 0.3-0.8 cm wide excluding the awns, erect, with 1 spikelet per node;
internodes 6-14 mm long, 0.2-0.4 mm wide, glabrous or pubescent beneath the spikelets.
12-20 mm excluding the awns, more or less divergent, with (2)3-5(7) florets, lowest florets functional;
disarticulation usually above the glumes and beneath each floret, rarely also below the glumes.
10-18 mm, 1.5-2 times longer than the internodes, appressed to ascending, with 3-7 florets;
rachillas strigillose;
disarticulation above the glumes, beneath each floret.
usually equal, occasionally subequal, 11-40 mm including the awns, the basal 0-1 mm subterete and slightly indurate, glume bodies 6-13 mm long, 0.5-1.6 mm wide, linear-lanceolate to subsetaceous, entire, widening or parallel-sided above the base, 3-5-veined, glabrous to scabrous-ciliate, rarely villous on the veins, margins firm, awns (5)10-25(27) mm, straight to outcurving;
lemmas 8-15 mm, glabrous, scabrous, hispid, or uniformly villous with the hairs generally appressed, awns (10)15-40(50) mm, moderately to strongly outcurving, often contorted at the spike bases;
paleas 7-13 mm, acute, usually bidentate;
anthers 2-3.5 mm.
subequal, 1/2 as long as to almost equaling the adjacent lemmas, glabrous or hairy, weakly keeled, keels and adjacent veins smooth to evenly and strongly scabrous from the base to the apices, margins 0.2-0.3 mm wide, apices acute, acuminate, or shortly awned;
lower glumes 4-8 mm;
upper glumes 4.5-8 mm;
lemmas 7.5-9.5 mm, glabrous or densely hairy, awns 4-12 mm, at least some strongly divergent;
paleas subequal to the lemmas, tapering to the 0.1-0.3 mm wide apices;
anthers 3-5 mm.
May to July.
= 28, rarely 42.
= 28.
Elymus canadensis
Elymus albicans
Elymus canadensis grows on dry to moist or damp, often sandy or gravelly soil on prairies, dunes, stream banks, ditches, roadsides, and disturbed ground, or, especially to the south, in thickets and open woods near streams. It is widespread in most of temperate North America, extending from the southwestern Northwest Territories to Coahuila, Mexico, being especially common in the Great Plains. Reports from California and the southeastern states appear to be based on misidentifications. E. canadensis is considered a good forage species.
Elymus canadensis is sometimes confused with E. riparius (see previous), from which it differs in having curved rather than straight awns; and with E. wiegandii (p. 305), from which it differs in its less robust habit and narrower leaves. It can hybridize with E. glabriflorus (p. 296), E. virginicus (p. 298), E. hystrix (p. 316) and allies, E. glaucus (p. 306), E. trachycaulus (p. 321), Pseudoroegneria spicata (p. 281), and other species. Subsequent introgression may have contributed to much of the diversity within the genus (Pohl 1959; Brown and Pratt 1960; Nelson and Tyrl 1978; Davies 1980; Campbell 2002). The three varieties recognized here show clear differences in their typical expression and evidence some geographic separation, but they may prove to be artificial reference points within a more or less continuous variation (Sanders et al. 1979). Nevertheless, crossing barriers sometimes exist between the varieties, and even between some sympatric strains (Church 1954, 1958, 1967a).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Elymus albicans grows primarily in the central Rocky Mountains and the western portion of the Great Plains. It tends to grow in shallow, rocky soils on wooded or sagebrush-covered slopes, rather than in deep loams. It is derived from hybrids between Pseudoroegneria spicata (p. 281) and E. lanceolatus (p. 327). In practice, it is probably restricted to hybrids involving the awned variant of Pseudoroegneria spicata, because the hybrid origin of those involving the unawned variant would probably not be recognized.
Populations of Elymus albicans differ in their reproductive abilities (Dewey 1970). In some, most plants yield good seed; in others, most plants are sterile. Some fertile populations appear to be self-perpetuating; others appear to consist of recent hybrids and some backcrosses. Although treated here as a species, E. albicans could equally well be treated as a hybrid in xPseudelymus (p. 282), but the combination has not been published. Plants with glabrous lemmas, presumed to be derived from crosses with glabrous individuals of E. lanceolatus, have sometimes been treated as a distinct taxon, e.g., Agropyron albicans var. griffithsii (Scribn. 8c J.G. Sm.) Beetle or A. griffithsii Scribn. & J.G. Sm.; they are not formally recognized here.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Lemmas usually villous or hispid; spikes nodding to almost pendent; internodes 4-7 mm long, often strongly glaucous | var. canadensis |
1. Lemmas usually smooth or scabridulous, occasionally hirsute; spikes usually nodding, occasionally almost erect; internodes 3-4 mm long, not strongly glaucous. | → 2 |
2. Glumes not clearly indurate or bowed out at the base, awns 10-20 mm long; lemmas smooth or scabridulous, awns usually 20-30 mm long, moderately outcurving; spikes 6-20 cm long | var. brachystachys |
2. Glumes often slightly indurate and bowed out at the base, awns 15-25 mm long; lemmas occasionally hirsute, awns 30-40 mm long, often strongly outcurving; spikes 15-25(30) cm long | var. robustus |
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