Elymus stebbinsii
Elymus wawawaiensis
Parish wheatgrass, Stebbins' wheat grass, Stebbins' wildrye
Snake River wheatgrass, wawawai wild rye
60-140 cm;
nodes glabrous or retrorsely pubescent.
(15)50-130 cm, erect, mostly glabrous;
nodes usually glabrous, sometimes slightly pubescent.
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.
more or less evenly distributed;
basal sheaths glabrate, margins not evidently ciliate;
auricles absent or to 1.2 mm;
ligules 0.1-1.1 mm;
blades to 28 cm long, 1.7-5 mm wide, involute when dry, adaxial surfaces usually densely pubescent, rarely sparsely pubescent.
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.
5-20 cm long, 2.5-3 cm wide including the awns, erect to slightly nodding, with 1 spikelet per node;
internodes 5-12 mm long, about 0.2 mm thick, about 0.3 mm wide, glabrous beneath the spikelets.
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.
10-22 mm long, about twice as long as the internodes, 2-8.5 mm wide, appressed, with 4-10 florets;
rachillas glabrous;
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.
4-10 mm long, 0.5-1.3 mm wide, narrowly lanceolate, widest at or below midlength, glabrous, often glaucous, 1-3-veined, flat or weakly keeled, margins 0.1-0.2 mm wide, widest near midlength, apices usually acuminate, awned or unawned, awns to 6 mm;
lemmas 6-12 mm, smooth or slightly scabrous, margins often sparsely pubescent proximally, apices awned, longest awns in the spikelets 9-28 mm, strongly divergent;
paleas 7.2-10.5 mm, keels scabrous distally, tapering to the 0.2-0.3 mm wide apices;
anthers 3.5-6 mm.
= 28.
= 28.
Elymus stebbinsii
Elymus wawawaiensis
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 wawawaiensis grows primarily in shallow, rocky soils of slopes in coulees and reaches of the Salmon, Snake, and Yakima rivers of Washington, northern Oregon, and Idaho. There are also a few records from localities at some distance from the Snake River and its tributaries. These probably reflect deliberate introductions. C.V. Piper, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in southeastern Washington from 1892-1902, frequently distributed seed to farmers in the region from populations that he considered superior; he considered E. wawawaiensis to be a superior form of what is here called Pseudo-roegneria spicata (p. 281). Another source of introduced populations is 'Secar', a cultivar of E. wawawaiensis that is recommended as a forage grass for arid areas of the northwestern United States.
Elymus wawawaiensis resembles a vigorous version of Pseudoroegneria spicata, and was long confused with that species. It differs in its more imbricate spikelets and narrower, stiff glumes. In its primary range, E. wawawaiensis is often sympatric with P. spicata, but the two tend to grow in different habitats, E. wawawaiensis growing in shallow, rocky soils and P. spicata in medium- to fine-textured loess soil. The two species also differ cytologically, E. wawawaiensis being an allo-tetraploid, and P. spicata consisting of diploids and autotetraploids.
(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
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
