The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

nine-awn pappus grass

Habit Plants perennial.
Culms

20-45 cm, about 1 mm thick, ascending to erect from a hard knotty base, often branching;

nodes pubescent.

Sheaths

usually shorter than the internodes, more or less pubescent;

ligules about 0.5 mm;

blades mostly 2-12 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, more or less hairy, soon involute.

Panicles

2-10 cm, spikelike, grayish-green or lead-colored.

Spikelets

mostly 5-7 mm, usually only the lowest floret bisexual.

Glumes

3-5 mm, subequal, thin, puberulent;

upper glumes often 3- or 4-veined;

lowest lemmas 1.5-2 mm, firm, rounded on the back;

awns 3-4 mm;

anthers 0.3-0.5 mm.

Caryopses

1-1.2 mm, oval, plump;

embryos subequal to the caryopses.

Cleistogamous

spikelets commonly present in the lower sheaths, their lemmas larger than those of the florets in the aerial panicles, unawned or with awns that are much reduced.

2n

= 20.

Enneapogon desvauxii

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; MD; NM; NV; OK; TX; UT; HI
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Enneapogon desvauxii grows in open areas of the southwestern United States and in much of Mexico. It also grows in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and most of Africa, from which it extends eastward through Arabia and India to China.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 287.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Pappophoreae > Enneapogon
Sibling taxa
E. cenchroides
Name authority P. Beauv.
Web links