Elymus canadensis |
Elymus elymoides |
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Canada wild rye, Canadian wild rye, Great Plains wild-rye, élyme du Canada |
bottlebrush, bottlebrush squirreltail, long-bristle wildrye, squirrel tail grass, squirreltail, western bottle-brush grass |
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Habit | Plants loosely cespitose, rarely with rhizomes to 4 cm long and 1-2 mm thick, often glaucous. | Plants cespitose, often glaucous, not rhizomatous. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Culms | (40)60-150(180) cm, erect or decumbent; nodes 4-10, mostly concealed by the leaf sheaths, glabrous. |
8-65 (77) cm, erect or geniculate to slightly decumbent, sometimes puberulent; nodes 4-6, mostly concealed, usually glabrous, sometimes pubescent. |
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Leaves | 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. |
evenly distributed; sheaths glabrous, scabrous, puberulent, or densely white-villous; auricles usually present, to about 1 mm, often purplish; ligules shorter than 1 mm, truncate, entire or lacerate; blades (1)2-4(6) mm wide, spreading or ascending, often involute, sometimes folded, abaxial surfaces glabrous to puberulent, adaxial surfaces scabrous, puberulent, hirsute, or white-villous. |
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Spikes | 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. |
3-20 cm long, 5-15 cm wide, erect to sub-flexuous, with 2-3 spikelets per node, rarely with 1 at some nodes; internodes 3-10(15) mm long, 0.1-0.4 mm thick at the thinnest sections, usually glabrous, sometimes puberulent beneath the spikelets. |
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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. |
10-20 mm, divergent, sometimes glaucous, at least 1 spikelet at a node with 2-4(5) florets, 1-4(5) florets fertile, sometimes all florets sterile in the lateral spikelets; disarticulation initially at the rachis nodes, subsequently beneath each floret. |
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Glumes | 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, 20-135 mm including the often undifferentiated awns, the bases indurate and glabrous, glume bodies 5-10 mm long, 1-3 mm wide, linear to setaceous, 1-3-veined, margins firm, awns 15-125 mm, scabrous, sometimes split into 2-3 unequal divisions, flexuous to outcurving from near the base at maturity; fertile lemmas 6-12 mm, glabrous, scabrous, or appressed-pubescent, 2 lateral veins extending into bristles to 10 mm, awns 15-120 mm long, about 0.4 mm wide at the base, often reddish or purplish, scabrous, flexuous to curved near the base; paleas 6-11 mm, veins often extending into bristles to 2(5) mm, apices acute to truncate; anthers 0.9-2.2 mm. |
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Anthesis | May to July. |
from late May to July. |
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2n | = 28, rarely 42. |
= 28. |
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Elymus canadensis |
Elymus elymoides |
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Distribution |
AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NT; ON; QC; SK
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AZ; CA; CO; DC; ID; IL; KS; KY; MO; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; SK
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Discussion | 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 elymoides grows in dry, often rocky, open woods, thickets, grasslands, and disturbed areas, from sagebrush deserts to alpine tundra. It is widespread in western North America, from British Columbia to northern Mexico and the western Great Plains, and introduced in western Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky. It is often dominant in overgrazed pinyon-juniper woodlands. Although palatable early in the season, the disarticulating, long-awned spikes irritate grazing animals later in the year. Elymus elymoides intergrades with E. multisetus (see previous) in parts of its southern range (Wilson 1963). It is sometimes confused with E. scribneri (p. 330), but differs in having more than one spikelet per node, narrower glumes, and less tardily disarticulating rachises. Hybrids with several other species in the Triticeae are known; they can often be recognized by their tardily disarticulating rachises. Named interspecific hybrids (pp. 338-343) (and the other parent) are E. xsaundersii (E. trachycaulus), E. xpinalenoensis (E. arizonicus), and possibly E. xhansenii (E. elymoides or E. multisetus x E. glaucus). Hybrids with E. sierrae have not been named; they are common where the two species are sympatric. They have broader glume bases, shorter glume awns, and longer anthers than E. elymoides. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 303. | FNA vol. 24, p. 318. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Triticeae > Elymus | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Triticeae > Elymus | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Sitanion hystrix, E. pubiflorus, E. glaber, Sitanion longifolium, Sitanion pubiflorum | |||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | L. | (Raf.) Swezey | ||||||||||||||||||||
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