Elymus curvatus
Elymus ciliaris
awnless wild-rye, awnless wlldrye, beardless wild rye
wildrye
60-110 cm, stiffly erect, or the base sometimes geniculate;
nodes 6-9, concealed or exposed, glabrous.
30-130 cm tall, 1-5 mm thick, erect or weakly decumbent;
nodes 3-4, glabrous, glaucous.
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.
basal and cauline;
sheaths glaucous, glabrous or with hairs, lower sheaths sometimes hairy, upper sheaths glabrous, margins sometimes ciliate;
auricles 1.5-2.5 mm;
ligules about 0.3 mm;
blades 10-25 cm long, 3-10 mm wide, glabrous or pilose.
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.
10-22 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide including the awns, 0.8-1 cm wide excluding the awns, inclined to nodding, with 1 spikelet at all or most nodes;
rachises scabrous on the edges, glabrous below the spikelets;
internodes 10-25 mm.
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.
5-22 mm long, about 5 mm wide, appressed, with 4-12 florets;
disarticulation above the glumes, beneath the florets.
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.
narrowly elliptic to lance-oblong, apices acute to acuminate;
lower glumes 5-11 mm;
upper glumes 7-13 mm;
lemmas 7-12 mm, mostly glabrous, glabrate, or sparsely hairy, margins with coarse stiff hairs, hairs to 1 mm, apices abruptly narrowed, awned, awns 10-20 mm, scabrous, strongly outcurved to recurved;
paleas 2/3 - 4/5 the length of the lemmas, keels winged distally, distinctly outwardly curved below the apices, apices 0.5-0.6 mm wide, truncate to rounded;
anthers about 2 mm.
late June to mid-August.
StY.
= 28, 42.
= 28.
Elymus curvatus
Elymus ciliaris
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 ciliaris is native to northern China and Japan. It was collected from ballast dumps in Portland, Oregon, in 1899 and 1902; it is not established in the Flora region. A.S. Hitchcock identified both specimens on the sheet (US 1017954) as Agropyron caninum (L.) P. Beauv. [= Elymus caninus, p. 322], from which E. ciliaris differs in its short, rounded paleas and relatively short glumes with distinctly outwardly curving keels. The other specimen on that sheet is E. tsuskushiensis (p. 336).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
OR
