Elymus glabriflorus
Elymus hoffmannii
southeastern wild-rye
Hoffmann's wheatgrass, rs wheatgrass
60-140 cm, erect;
nodes 6-9, mostly concealed, glabrous.
54-135 cm, glabrous.
evenly distributed;
sheaths glabrous or pubescent, often reddish brown;
auricles absent or to 2 mm, usually purplish brown;
ligules shorter than 1 mm;
blades 7-15 mm wide, lax or somewhat involute and ascending, usually dull green, sometimes with a glaucous bloom, adaxial surfaces glabrous or densely short-villous.
evenly distributed;
sheaths glabrous;
auricles absent or to 1 mm;
ligules 0.6-1 mm, truncate, erose;
blades 5-13 mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces smooth, glabrous, adaxial surfaces glabrous, veins closely spaced, all more or less equally prominent, smooth or scabrous.
6-20 cm long, (2) 2.5-4(5.5) cm wide, erect, exserted, with (10)18-30(36) nodes, usually with 2(3) spikelets per node, occasionally with up to 5 at some nodes;
internodes 3-5 mm long, 0.3-0.8 mm thick and usually 4-angled at the thinnest sections, glabrous or pubescent beneath the spikelets.
10-50 cm long, 0.8-1.8 cm wide, with 1 spikelet per node, glabrous below the spikelets;
internodes 5-8 mm long, about 0.2 mm thick, about 0.3 mm wide, both surfaces hairy, hairs 0.2-0.4 mm.
10-20 mm, strongly divergent, often reddish brown at maturity, with (2)3-5(6) florets, lowest florets functional;
disarticulation below the glumes and each floret, or the lowest floret often falling with the glumes.
15-27 mm, appressed to ascending, with 5-7 florets;
rachillas scabridulous;
disarticulation above the glumes, beneath the florets.
equal or subequal, entire, the basal 1-3 mm terete, indurate, moderately bowed out, without evident venation, glume bodies 7-18 mm long, (0.7)0.9-1.7 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, widening above the base, (3)4-5(7)-veined, smooth or scabrous, sometimes hirsute, margins firm, awns (10)15-25(30) mm, straight except the awns of the lowest spikelets frequently contorted;
lemmas 6-13 mm, smooth, scabrous, or hirsute, awns (15)25-35(40) mm, straight except the awns of the lowest spikelets occasionally contorted;
paleas 6-12 mm, obtuse;
anthers 2-4 mm.
equal, 5-11 mm long, 1.3-1.8 mm wide, stiff, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, strongly rounded to keeled distally, keels inconspicuous and smooth on the proximal 1/3-1/2, conspicuous and with a few teeth distally, lateral veins inconspicuous, hyaline margins 0.1-0.2 mm wide, apices acuminate to awned, awns to 8 mm;
lemmas 7-12 mm, glabrous, smooth, apices unawned or awned, awns to 12 mm, straight;
paleas ciliate on the keels, apices about 0.6 mm wide;
anthers 4-7 mm.
usually mid-June to late July.
= 28.
= 42.
Elymus glabriflorus
Elymus hoffmannii
Elymus glabriflorus grows on moist, damp, or dry soil in open woods, thickets, and tall grasslands, sometimes spreading into old fields and roadsides. It is found in most of the southeastern United States, extending north to Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, and along the Atlantic coast to Maine; it is rare north of Maryland. Anthesis is usually 2-4 weeks later than in E. virginicus (see next) and other sympatric taxa, even in Texas, where it occurs up to a month earlier than the dates given (Davies 1980).
Elymus glabriflorus varies greatly in its pubescence, but without clear taxonomic relevance. Plants that combine pubescent spikelets and, usually, pubescent leaves with somewhat shorter spikes (6-12 cm versus 9-20 cm) and lemmas (6-10 mm versus 7-13 mm) are typical on relatively dry, infertile soils, especially in hilly interior regions, and are less frequent on the southeastern coastal plain. They have been named E. glabriflorus var. australis (Scribn. & C.R. Ball) J.J.N. Campb. In contrast, glabrous to scabrous plants that are often more robust usually grow on relatively moist or damp soils of bottomlands and upland depressions.
Elymus glabriflorus is most closely related to E. macgregorii (see previous) and E. virginicus, forming occasional hybrids with both (Campbell 2000). It is sometimes confused with E. villosus (p. 302), from which it differs in having erect spikes, and glumes that are bowed out and disarticulate at maturity. It has also been confused with E. canadensis, especially E. canadensis var. robustus (p. 305), which may be derived from introgressants between the two species (Davies 1980). Hybrids with E. hystrix (p. 316) are also known, with apparent introgression at some range margins. Artificial crosses with other species failed in several cases (Church 1967a, 1967b).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Elymus hoffmannii was described from a breeding line of plants developed from seeds collected in Erzurum Province, Turkey by J.A. Hoffmann and R.J. Metzger (Jensen & Asay 1996). There is no information available about its native distribution. As indicated in the key, E. hoffmannii differs from E. repens (see previous) primarily in its evenly prominent, closely spaced leaf veins and, usually, in having longer awns.
The description of Elymus hoffmannii was explicitly written to encompass the cultivar 'NewHy' that is derived from an artificial cross between E. repens and Pseudoroegneria spicata (p. 281). Because of its morphological similarity to plants obtained from the Turkish seed, Jensen and Asay suggested that E. hoffmannii had a similar parentage. 'NewHy' was released as a cultivar in the 1980s. Its distribution within the Flora region is not known.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Go Botany
IL Wildflowers
KS Wildflowers
LA Plants
MD Biodiversity
MO Plants
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
PNW Herbaria
