Elymus scribneri |
Elymus stebbinsii |
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Scribner's wheat grass, Scribner's wild rye, spreading wheatgrass |
Parish wheatgrass, Stebbins' wheat grass, Stebbins' wildrye |
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Habit | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. | Plants cespitose or shortly rhizomatous. | ||||
Culms | 15-35(55) cm, prostrate to strongly decumbent, at least at the base; nodes glabrous. |
60-140 cm; nodes glabrous or retrorsely pubescent. |
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Sheaths | glabrous or shortly pilose; auricles usually present, 0.5-1 mm; ligules 0.2-0.4(0.7) mm, usually truncate, occasionally acute, entire to erose; blades 1.5-4 mm wide, usually involute, adaxial surfaces prominently ribbed. |
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Leaves | evenly distributed; sheaths glabrous or pubescent; auricles usually present, 0.5-2 mm; ligules 0.3-3.5 mm, truncate to acute, sometimes long-ciliate; blades 4-6.5 mm wide, flat or the margins involute, straight. |
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Spikes | 3.5-10 cm long, 0.8-1.2 cm wide excluding the awns, 3-6 cm wide including the awns, usually with 1 spikelet per node, occasionally with 2 spikelets at the lower nodes; internodes 2.5-5(7) mm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, glabrous, mostly smooth, edges scabrous. |
15-31 cm long, 0.4-1.5 cm wide including the awns, 0.4-0.8 cm wide excluding the awns, erect, with 1 spikelet per node; internodes 9-27 mm long, 1-1.3 mm wide, glabrous, smooth. |
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Spikelets | 9-15 mm long, 6-12 mm wide, appressed to ascending, with 3-6 florets; rachilla internodes 0.8-1.3 mm, scabridulous; disarticulation initially at the rachis nodes, subsequently beneath each floret. |
13-29 mm long, from shorter than to almost twice as long as the internodes, 2.5-5 mm wide, appressed, with 5-7 florets; rachillas glabrous; disarticulation above the glumes and beneath each floret. |
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Glumes | 4-9 mm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, mostly glabrous, midveins scabrous, 3-5-veined, entire, tapering into a divergent, 12-30 mm awn; lemmas 7-10 mm, usually glabrous, occasionally scabridulous, awned, awns 15-30 mm, divergent, scabridulous; paleas usually longer than the lemmas, apices ciliate, truncate or the veins extending into teeth, teeth about 0.5 mm; anthers 1-1.6 mm. |
subequal, 7.5-12 mm long, 1.2-1.5 mm wide, lanceolate, widest at about mid-length, flat or rounded on the back, 5-veined, veins smooth, scabrous or just the midvein scabridulous, margins widest at about midlength, apices acute, unawned; lemmas 9-12 mm, glabrous, sometimes scabrous, acute, unawned or awned, awns to 28 mm, straight; paleas subequal to the lemmas, tapering, apices 0.2-0.3 mm wide; anthers (3.5)4-7 mm. |
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2n | = 28. |
= 28. |
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Elymus scribneri |
Elymus stebbinsii |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB
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CA
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Discussion | Elymus scribneri grows in rocky areas in open subalpine and alpine regions, at 2500-3200 m, often in windswept locations, in southwestern Alberta and the western United States. It is often confused with E. elymoides (p. 318), but differs from that species in having only one spikelet per node, wider glumes, and more tardily disarticulating rachises. It also resembles E. sierrae (see next), from which it differs in its disarticulating rachises, denser spikes, and shorter anthers. Dewey (1963) concluded that Elymus trachycaulus subsp. andinus consists of hybrids between E. scribneri and E. trachycaulus (p. 321). In addition, several taxonomists have suggested that E. scribneri consists of fertile hybrids between E. violaceus (p. 324) and E. elymoides. This suggestion is supported by the frequency with which the three taxa are sympatric, the morphological variation exhibited by E. scribneri, and cytogenetic data (Dewey 1967). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Elymus stebbinsii is restricted to California, where it grows on dry slopes, chaparral, and wooded areas, at elevations below 1600 m. It differs from other Elymus species primarily in its combination of long anthers and solitary spikelets. It is often confused with E. glaucus (p. 306) and E. trachycaulus (p. 321) with solitary spikelets. It differs from both in its longer anthers, and from most representatives of E. glaucus in its acute, but unawned, glumes. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 330. | FNA vol. 24, p. 329. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Triticeae > Elymus | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Triticeae > Elymus | ||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Agropyron scribneri | Agropyron parishii | ||||
Name authority | (Vasey) M. E. Jones | Gould | ||||
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