Elymus multisetus |
Elymus virginicus |
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big squirreltail, big squirreltail grass |
common eastern wild-rye, Virginia wild rye, élyme de virginie |
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Habit | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous, sometimes glaucous, especially in the spikes. | ||||||||||||
Culms | 15-65 cm, erect to ascending, usually puberulent; nodes 4-6, mostly concealed, glabrous. |
30-130 cm, erect to slightly decumbent; nodes 4-9, concealed or exposed, usually glabrous, rarely pubescent. |
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Leaves | evenly distributed; sheaths glabrous or white-villous; auricles usually present, 0.5-1.5 mm; ligules to 1 mm, truncate, entire or lacerate; blades 1.5-4(5) mm wide, often ascending and involute, adaxial surfaces scabrous, pilose, or villous. |
evenly distributed; sheaths usually glabrous, rarely hirsute, occasionally reddish or purplish; auricles absent or to 1.8 mm, pale brown; ligules shorter than 1 mm; blades 2-14(18) mm wide, usually spreading or lax, sometimes becoming involute, basal blades similar to the upper blades, adaxial surfaces usually smooth, sometimes scabridulous, usually glabrous, occasionally pubescent. |
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Spikes | 5-20 cm long, 5-15 cm wide, erect, sometimes partially enclosed at the base, with 2 spikelets per node, rarely with 3-4 at some nodes; internodes 3-5(8) mm long, 0.1-0.3 mm thick at the thinnest sections, glabrous beneath the spikelets. |
(3)4-16(22) cm long, 1-2.2(2.5) cm wide, erect, the bases often sheathed, with 2 spikelets per node, rarely with 3 at some nodes; internodes 3-5 mm long, 0.25-0.5 thick at the thinnest sections, smooth and glabrous, or scabrous, or with hairs beneath the spikelets. |
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Spikelets | 10-15 mm, divergent, with 2-4 florets, lowest florets sterile and glumelike in 1 or both spikelets at each node; disarticulation initially at the rachis nodes, subsequently beneath each floret. |
10-15 mm, appressed to slightly divergent, with (2)3-4(6) florets, lowest florets functional; disarticulation below the glumes and each floret, or the lowest floret falling with the glumes. |
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Glumes | subequal, (10)30-100 mm including the awns, the bases indurate and glabrous, glume bodies (2)5-10 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, setaceous, 2-3-veined, margins firm, awns (8)25-90 mm, each split into 3-9 unequal divisions, scabrous, flexuous to outcurving from near the glume bases at maturity; fertile lemmas 8-10 mm, smooth or scabrous near the apices, 2 lateral veins extending into bristles to 10 mm, awns (10)20-110 mm long, about 0.2 mm wide at the base, divergent to arcuate; paleas 7-9 mm, veins usually extending into about 1 mm bristles, apices acute to truncate; anthers 1-2 mm. |
subequal or equal, the basal 1-4 mm terete, indurate, without evident venation, bowed out, yellowish, glume bodies 7-15 mm long, (0.5)0.7-2.3 mm wide, linear-lanceolate, widening above the base, 3-5(8)-veined, usually smooth or scabridulous, margins firm, awns 3-10(15) mm, straight; lemmas 6-10 mm, scabridulous, glabrous or villous-hirsute, awns (5)8-20(25) mm, straight; paleas 5-9 mm, obtuse; anthers 2-3.5(4) mm. |
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Anthesis | from late May to June. |
usually mid-June to late July (mid-August). |
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2n | = 28. |
= 28. |
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Elymus multisetus |
Elymus virginicus |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY
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AL; AR; AZ; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; LB; MB; NB; NS; ON; PE; QC; SK
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Discussion | Elymus multisetus grows in dry, often rocky, open woods and thickets on slopes and plains, from central Washington and Idaho to southern California, Colorado, and northwestern Arizona, and from sea level to 2000 m. It has also been reported from Baja California, Mexico. It usually grows in less arid habitats than E. elymoides subsp. elymoides (p. 319), but the two taxa are sometimes sympatric. Wilson (1963) reported a wide belt of introgression between Elymus multisetus and E. elymoides subsp. elymoides from southeastern California to southern Nevada, but not in other areas where they are sympatric. There are also probable hybrids with E. glaucus (p. 306) and Pseudoroegneria spicata (p. 281). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Elymus virginicus is widespread in temperate North America, growing as far west as British Columbia and Arizona. It is infrequent to rare in the Rocky Mountains, western Great Plains, and southeastern coastal plain. It is a complex species, divided here into four intergrading varieties. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 318. | FNA vol. 24, p. 298. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Triticeae > Elymus | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Triticeae > Elymus | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Name authority | (J.G. Sm.) Burtt Davy | L. | ||||||||||||
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