Elymus hystrix
Elymus sibiricus
bottlebrush grass, eastern bottle-brush grass, glumeless wlldrye
Siberian wildrye
50-140 cm, usually erect, occasionally geniculate below;
nodes 4-8, exposed or concealed, glabrous.
40-150 cm, erect or slightly geniculate at the base;
nodes 6-9, usually exposed, glabrous.
evenly distributed;
sheaths usually glabrous, occasionally pilose, often purplish;
auricles usually present, 0.5-3 mm, brown to black;
ligules 1-2(3) mm;
blades 4-16 mm wide, lax, usually deep glossy green, adaxial surfaces pilose or scabridulous.
evenly distributed;
sheaths glabrous or hirsute, often purplish;
auricles to 1 mm, often absent;
ligules to 1 mm;
blades (3)5-14(16) mm wide, lax, adaxial surfaces usually pilose to hirsute on the veins, sometimes scabrous or smooth.
7-20 cm long, 4-7 cm wide, more or less erect, usually with 2 spikelets per node, rarely with 3 at some nodes;
internodes (3)4-8(10) mm long, (0.1)0.2-0.3(0.4) mm thick at the thinnest sections, flexuous, usually glabrous, sometimes scabrous or hirsute, usually with green lateral bands.
7-30 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, flexuous, nodding to pendent, with (1)2(3-4) spikelets per node, solitary spikelets usually basal or distal, rarely occurring throughout;
internodes 5-10 mm long, 0.2-0.7 mm thick at the thinnest sections, mostly glabrous, sometimes scabrous below the spikelets, angles ciliate.
10-18 mm, strongly divergent to patent at maturity, with (1)2-4(6) florets, lowest florets functional;
disarticulation above the glumes, beneath each floret.
10-18 mm, appressed to divergent, usually becoming purplish, with (3)4-5(7) florets, lowest florets functional;
disarticulation above the glumes, beneath each floret.
usually vestigial, sometimes 1-3 mm long, about 0.1 mm wide, subulate, entire, with no evident veins, occasionally to 10(20) mm long including the undifferentiated awns and differing in length by more than 5 mm, 0.1-0.2 mm wide, setaceous, tapering from the base, usually glabrous, occasionally appressed-puberulent to strigose, sometimes scabrous, usually straight, rarely somewhat curving, margins firm;
lemmas 8-11 mm, usually glabrous, occasionally appressed-puberulent to strigose, especially near the margins and apices, awns (12)20-40(47) mm, usually straight, rarely somewhat curving;
paleas 7-11 mm, obtuse or truncate, occasionally emarginate;
anthers 2.5-5 mm.
equal or subequal, the bases flat, evidently veined, not indurate, glume bodies 3-8 mm long, 0.4-1(1.2) mm wide, linear-lanceolate to subsetaceous, entire, widening or parallel-sided above the base, 3(5)-veined, veins smooth or scabrous, margins hyaline or scarious, awns 1-6 mm, straight;
lemmas 8-13 mm, densely scabridulous to scabrous, at least along the outer veins, awns 10-25 mm, usually somewhat outcurving from near the base;
paleas 8-12 mm, keels spinose-ciliate, bidentate, apices acute, 0.15-0.3 mm wide between the veins;
anthers 0.9-1.7 mm.
mid-June to early July.
from June to July.
= 28.
= 28.
Elymus hystrix
Elymus sibiricus
Elymus hystrix grows in dry to moist soils in open woods and thickets, especially on base-rich slopes and small stream terraces. It grows throughout most of temperate eastern North America, extending west to Manitoba and Oklahoma, but is absent from the southern portion of the coastal plain.
Plants with pubescent lemmas have been recognized as Elymus hystrix var. bigelovianus (Fernald) Bowden. These occur infrequently north of a line from South Dakota through Kentucky to New Jersey, and are often mixed with the typical variety; uniform populations are known in the northeastern United States. Plants with pubescent blades are also more prevalent to the north. Elymus hystrix hybridizes with most eastern species of Elymus. Introgression may account for the considerable variation in glume development and spikelet appression among these species. Lack of glumes may be a recessive character, with even slight glume development indicating introgression (Church 1967b). Plants with relatively well-developed, subequal glumes are presumed to be of hybrid origin. Such plants include most material from the Carolina piedmont region, where E. glabriflorus (p. 296) is the most likely source of introgression. The relatively frequent hybrids with E. virginicus (p. 298) are usually sterile, but Church (1967b) made crosses through three segregating generations. Within the ranges of E. diversiglumis (p. 316), E. svensonii (p. 314), and E. churchii (p. 314;, there appear to be frequent introgressants between these species and E. hystrix. Further east, especially in the Appalachian regions of North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland (including the shale barrens and nearby), there are scattered plants of E. hystrix with curving awns and, in a few cases, appressed spikelets (Campbell 2002). Whether these represent occasional variation within the E. hystrix gene pool, or whether they are outlying remnants of introgression with E. canadensis (p. 303) during a past eastward extension, is unknown.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Elymus sibiricus grows in dry to damp grasslands and thickets, on slopes, eroding river banks, mud flats, coastal benches, dunes, clearings, and other disturbed areas, in southern Alaska, the southern Yukon Territory, the southwestern MacKenzie District in the Northwest Territories, and central British Columbia. Porsild and Cody (1980) suggested that at least some of the populations are native to North America. In a more extensive analysis, Bennett (2006) concluded that all North American populations are the result of recent introductions. The species is widespread in cool temperate regions of central and eastern Asia. In China, it is considered an excellent forage grass, having a high protein content.
North American plants differ from Asian plants in several respects: they are up to 150 cm tall, versus 90 cm in Asia; their leaves are usually pubescent, rather than glabrous to scabrous; and their lemmas are scabridulous to scabrous, rather than glabrous to strigulose or pilose.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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