Elymus curvatus
Elymus caninus
awnless wild-rye, awnless wlldrye, beardless wild rye
bearded wheatgrass
60-110 cm, stiffly erect, or the base sometimes geniculate;
nodes 6-9, concealed or exposed, glabrous.
30-130 cm, erect or geniculate, usually hairy on or below the nodes.
evenly distributed;
sheaths glabrous, often reddish brown;
auricles to 1 mm, sometimes absent;
ligules shorter than 1 mm, ciliolate;
blades 5-15 mm wide, the lower blades usually lax, shorter, narrower, and senescing earlier, the upper blades usually ascending and somewhat involute, adaxial surfaces smooth or scabridulous, occasionally scabrous.
evenly distributed;
sheaths glabrous;
auricles to 1.5 mm;
ligules 0.2-1.5 mm;
blades 10-30 cm long, 4-10 mm wide, flat, both surfaces scabrous, adaxial surfaces sometimes with hairs over the veins, hairs to 0.5 mm, veins not prominent, widely spaced.
9-15 cm long, (0.5)0.7-1.3 cm wide, erect, exserted or the bases slightly sheathed, with 2 spikelets per node;
internodes 2.5-4.5 mm long, about 0.25-5 mm thick at the thinnest sections, smooth or scabrous beneath the spikelets.
5-20 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm wide including the awns, 5-8 mm wide excluding the awns, erect or arching, with 1 spikelet per node;
internodes 4.5-7 mm, edges scabrous or ciliate, both surfaces hairy below the spikelets.
10-15 mm, appressed, often reddish brown at maturity, with (2)3-4(5) florets, lowest florets functional;
disarticulation below the glumes and beneath the florets, or the lowest floret falling with the glumes.
10-15(20) mm long, 2-5(7) mm wide, appressed to slightly divergent, with 2-6 florets;
rachillas scabridulous or pubescent, often more densely pubescent distally;
disarticulation above the glumes, beneath each floret.
equal or subequal, the basal 2-3 mm terete, indurate, strongly bowed out, without evident venation, glume bodies 7-15 mm long, 1.2-2.1 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, widening above the base, 3-5-veined, usually glabrous or scabrous, occasionally hispidulous, rarely hirsute on the veins, margins firm, awns 0-3(5) mm;
lemmas 6-10 mm, glabrous or scabrous, rarely hirsute, awns (0.5)1-3(4) mm, rarely 5-10 mm on the lemmas of the distal spikelets, straight;
paleas 6-10 mm, obtuse, often emarginate;
anthers 1.5-3 mm.
equal to unequal, 0.6-1 mm wide, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, usually green, flat or weakly keeled, keels eccentric, adaxial surfaces hairy, hairs often inconspicuous, hyaline margins sometimes widest distally, narrowing abruptly to the acute to acuminate apices;
lower glumes 8-11 mm, 3-veined, usually awned, awns to 3 mm;
upper glumes 10-13 mm, 3-5-veined, sometimes awn-tipped, awns to 0.3 mm;
lemmas 9-13 mm, glabrous, smooth to somewhat scabridulous distally, rounded on the back proximally, awned, awns 7-20 mm, straight or flexuous;
paleas subequal to the lemmas, keels finely and densely ciliate over most of their length, straight or slightly outwardly curved, tapering to the apices, apices about 0.2 mm wide;
anthers 2-3 mm.
late June to mid-August.
StH.
= 28, 42.
= 28.
Elymus curvatus
Elymus caninus
Elymus curvatus grows in moist or damp soils of open forests, thickets, grasslands, ditches, and disturbed ground, especially on bottomland. It is widespread from British Columbia and Washington, through the Intermountain region and northern Rockies, to the northern Great Plains. It is infrequent or rare in the midwest, the Great Lakes region, and the northeast, and is virtually unknown in the southeast. It is similar to E. virginicus (p. 298), and has sometimes been included in that species as E. virginicus var. submuticus Hook., but is more distinct than the varieties of E. virginicus treated above. Although E. virginicus and E. curvatus overlap greatly in range, E. curvatus usually has a distinct growth form, and its anthesis is 1-2 weeks later (Brooks 1974). Its spikes range from being completely exserted, especially west of the Great Plains, to largely sheathed, especially east of the Mississippi River and in more stressed environments. This geographic trend parallels that within E. virginicus, but sheathed plants of E. curvatus can usually be distinguished by their short awns. Clear transitions to E. virginicus, usually var. jejunus, are rare, but, especially from Missouri to Wisconsin, there are occasional plants with 5-10 mm awns on a few lemmas, especially at the spike tips. Rarely, plants from Missouri and Iowa to Quebec have hispid to hirsute spikelets, suggesting introgression with E. virginicus var. intermedius. There are a few records of apparent hybrids with other species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Elymus caninus is native to Eurasia; it is not known to be established in the Flora region. A.S. Hitchcock (1935, 1951) reported that it had been collected on ballast dumps in Portland, Oregon, but the specimens concerned belong to E. ciliaris (p. 336) and E. tsukushiensis (p. 336). Elymus caninus differs from E. ciliaris and E. tsukushiensis in having flatter glumes that are longer in relation to the lemmas, and palea keels that are straight or almost straight below the apices. Recent reports of its occurrence in the region reflect C.L. Hitchcock et al.'s (1969) treatment, in which E. caninus and E. trachycaulus were treated as conspecific subspecies. Because E. caninus is the older name, it is the correct name to use at the specific rank under such a treatment.
The hairs on the inside of the glumes are difficult to see. Nevertheless, this is the single most reliable morphological character for distinguishing Elymus caninus from all other species of Elymus in this treatment. Elymus caninus is most likely to be confused with awned plants of E. trachycaulus (p. 321). The two species also differ in their molecular characteristics, and in at least one chromosome interchange (Sun et al. 1998).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
