Elymus canadensis
Elymus ×ebingeri
Canada wild rye, Canadian wild rye, Great Plains wild-rye, élyme du Canada
wildrye
(40)60-150(180) cm, erect or decumbent;
nodes 4-10, mostly concealed by the leaf sheaths, glabrous.
50-135 cm, usually smooth, glabrous, sometimes retrorsely hairy;
nodes glabrous or hairy.
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 smooth or scabridulous, hairy;
ligules to 1 mm;
blades 14-26 cm long, to 12 mm wide, flat, both surfaces scabridulous, adaxial surfaces hairy.
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.
8-17 cm, with (1)2+ spikelets per node;
internodes 4-8 mm.
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.
diverging at about 45° from the rachises, not patent.
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.
usually subequal, 15-20 mm, bases indurate, bodies lanceolate to subulate, scabrous, sometimes the lower glumes reduced to a stub;
lemmas 8-10 mm, glabrous or strigose, sometimes scabrous, awns 23-29 mm, straight, scabrous;
anthers 2-2.9 mm.
seldom formed.
May to July.
= 28, rarely 42.
Elymus canadensis
Elymus ×ebingeri
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 ×ebingeri is the name for hybrids between E. virginicus (p. 298) and E. hystrix (p. 316). It is frequently found where the two parental species grow together, often with later hybrid generations and introgressants to the two parents. It has been reported from southern Ontario, and from Wisconsin to New York and Illinois. Most published reports simply refer to the existence of these hybrids, the name itself not having been published until 1996.
Elymus ×ebingeri is an Elymus named hybrid
Elymus is notorious for its ability to hybridize. Most of its interspecific hybrids are partially fertile, permitting introgression between the parents. The descriptions provided below are restricted to the named interspecific hybrids. They should be treated with caution and some skepticism; some are based solely on the type specimen, because little other reliably identified material was available. Moreover, as the descriptions of the non-hybrid species indicate, many other interspecific hybrids exist.
The parentage of all hybrids is best determined in the field. Perennial hybrids, such as those in Elymus, can persist in an area after one or both parents have died out, but the simplest assumption is that both are present. Interspecific hybrids of Elymus that have disarticulating rachises presumably have E. elymoides or E. multisetus as one of their parents.
(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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