Elymus macgregorii
Elymus albicans
early wild-rye
Montana wheatgrass, Montana wild rye
40-120 cm, erect or slightly decumbent;
nodes 4-8, mostly exposed, glabrous.
40-100 cm, erect or decumbent only at the base, glabrous.
evenly distributed;
sheaths usually glabrous, rarely villous;
auricles 2-3 mm, usually purplish black when fresh, sometimes light brown;
ligules shorter than 1 mm;
blades 7-15 mm wide, lax, dark glossy green under the glaucous bloom, adaxial surfaces usually glabrous, occasionally villous.
somewhat basally concentrated;
sheaths glabrous;
auricles usually present, to 0.8 mm;
ligules 0.2-0.5 mm, ciliolate;
blades 1-3 mm wide, usually involute, adaxial surfaces scabrous to strigose.
4-12 cm long, (1.7)2.2-3(4)4 cm wide, erect, exserted, with (6)9-16(20) nodes and 2 spikelets at all or most nodes, sometimes with 3 at some nodes;
internodes 4-7 mm long, about 0.3 mm thick and 2-angled at the thinnest sections, usually glabrous or scabridulous beneath the spikelets.
4-14 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide including the awns, 0.3-0.8 cm wide excluding the awns, erect, with 1 spikelet per node;
internodes 6-14 mm long, 0.2-0.4 mm wide, glabrous or pubescent beneath the spikelets.
10-15 mm, strongly divergent, glaucous, maturing to pale yellowish brown, with (2)3-4 florets, lowest florets functional;
disarticulation below the glumes and each floret, the lowest floret often falling with the glumes.
10-18 mm, 1.5-2 times longer than the internodes, appressed to ascending, with 3-7 florets;
rachillas strigillose;
disarticulation above the glumes, beneath each floret.
subequal, entire, the basal 1-3 mm terete or subterete, indurate, without evident venation, moderately bowed out, glume bodies 8-16 mm long, 1-1.8 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, widening or parallel-sided above the base, (2)4-5(8)-veined, usually glabrous, occasionally hirsute, sometimes scabrous, margins firm, awns (10)15-20(25) mm, straight except the awns of the lowest spikelets occasionally contorted;
lemmas 6-12 mm, usually glabrous, sometimes scabrous, occasionally villous, awns (15)20-30 mm, straight;
paleas 6-10 mm, apices obtuse;
anthers 2-4 mm.
subequal, 1/2 as long as to almost equaling the adjacent lemmas, glabrous or hairy, weakly keeled, keels and adjacent veins smooth to evenly and strongly scabrous from the base to the apices, margins 0.2-0.3 mm wide, apices acute, acuminate, or shortly awned;
lower glumes 4-8 mm;
upper glumes 4.5-8 mm;
lemmas 7.5-9.5 mm, glabrous or densely hairy, awns 4-12 mm, at least some strongly divergent;
paleas subequal to the lemmas, tapering to the 0.1-0.3 mm wide apices;
anthers 3-5 mm.
usually mid-May to mid-June.
= 28.
= 28.
Elymus macgregorii
Elymus albicans
Elymus macgregorii grows in moist, deep, alluvial or residual, calcareous or other base-rich soils in woods and thickets, mostly east of the 100th Meridian in the contiguous United States. It used to be confused with E. glabriflorus (p. 296) or E. virginicus (p. 298), but it reaches anthesis about a month earlier than sympatric populations of these species. In most of its range, E. macgregorii has purplish black auricles; light brown auricles may be locally abundant, particularly in populations at the limits of its range.
Elymus macregorii hybridizes with several species, but especially E. virginicus and E. hystrix (p. 316) (Campbell 2000). Western plants often have smaller, more condensed spikes and distinctly villous leaves, suggesting a transition to E. virginicus var. jejunus (p. 300). Transitions to E. virginicus var. jejunus can also be recognized to the north, where the dates of anthesis are delayed, but even in Maine, E. macgregorii reaches anthesis about 10 days earlier than E. virginicus (Campbell and Haines 2002). Plants with villous lemmas grow at scattered locations; they have not been reported in distinct habitats, nor in large enough populations to warrant taxonomic recognition.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Elymus albicans grows primarily in the central Rocky Mountains and the western portion of the Great Plains. It tends to grow in shallow, rocky soils on wooded or sagebrush-covered slopes, rather than in deep loams. It is derived from hybrids between Pseudoroegneria spicata (p. 281) and E. lanceolatus (p. 327). In practice, it is probably restricted to hybrids involving the awned variant of Pseudoroegneria spicata, because the hybrid origin of those involving the unawned variant would probably not be recognized.
Populations of Elymus albicans differ in their reproductive abilities (Dewey 1970). In some, most plants yield good seed; in others, most plants are sterile. Some fertile populations appear to be self-perpetuating; others appear to consist of recent hybrids and some backcrosses. Although treated here as a species, E. albicans could equally well be treated as a hybrid in xPseudelymus (p. 282), but the combination has not been published. Plants with glabrous lemmas, presumed to be derived from crosses with glabrous individuals of E. lanceolatus, have sometimes been treated as a distinct taxon, e.g., Agropyron albicans var. griffithsii (Scribn. 8c J.G. Sm.) Beetle or A. griffithsii Scribn. & J.G. Sm.; they are not formally recognized here.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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