Elymus stebbinsii
Elymus churchii
Parish wheatgrass, Stebbins' wheat grass, Stebbins' wildrye
Church's wildrye
60-140 cm;
nodes glabrous or retrorsely pubescent.
50-120 cm, erect;
nodes 4-8, exposed or concealed, often reddish brown or blackish, glabrous.
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.
evenly distributed;
sheaths usually glabrous, sometimes pubescent at the summit;
auricles 1-2 mm, often reddish brown or blackish;
ligules to 1 mm, often reddish brown;
blades 3-11 mm wide, lax, adaxial surfaces glabrous or short-pilose.
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.
10-18 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, slightly nodding, with 2 spikelets per node;
internodes (5)7-13(18) mm long, about 0.2 mm thick at the thinnest sections, flexuous, with green lateral bands, glabrous except the dorsal angles hispid.
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.
10-15 mm, usually appressed, with 3(5) florets, lowest florets functional;
disarticulation above the glumes, beneath each floret.
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.
often differing in length by more than 5 mm, sometimes vestigial to absent from the upper spikelets or throughout, 0-15(20) mm long including the undifferentiated awns, indurate at the base, 0.1-0.3 mm wide, setaceous to subulate, entire, 0-1-veined, glabrous, margins firm, awns often outcurving;
lemmas 8-10 mm, usually hairy, occasionally glabrous, awns (10)20-30(35) mm, slightly to strongly outcurving at maturity;
paleas 7-9 mm, obtuse to truncate, sometimes emarginate;
anthers 2.5-3 mm, evident in June.
= 28.
= unknown.
Elymus stebbinsii
Elymus churchii
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.)
Elymus churchii grows in dry, rocky, often relatively base-rich soils, in open woods on ridges, and on bluffs and river banks. Its range includes the central Ouachita Mountains and the western Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.
Elymus churchii used to be included in E. interruptus (p. 306) (Steyermark 1963; Smith 1991). It is similar to the more eastern, disjunct E. svensonii (see previous), from which it differs in its more open spikes, longer awns, fewer florets per spikelet, and less pubescent, less glaucous foliage. Like E. svensonii, E. churchii may have originated from hybridization between E. canadensis (p. 303) and E. hystrix (p. 316); occasional intermediates with both species exist (Campbell 2002).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Lemmas awned, awns 8-28 mm long; lower leaf sheaths rarely pubescent; spikelets 13-22 mm long | subsp. septentrionalis |
1. Lemmas unawned or with awns to 8(12) mm long; lower leaf sheaths pubescent or glabrous; spikelets 17-29 mm long | subsp. stebbinsii |
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
MO Plants
