Flora of North America species comparison

15-45(65) cm, erect or decumbent, sometimes with crateriform glands below the nodes.

45-95 cm, erect, glabrous.

glabrous, occasionally glandular, apices hairy, hairs to 5 mm;

ligules 0.4-0.8 mm, ciliate;

blades (1)5-20 cm long, (1)3-5(10) mm wide, flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, sometimes glandular, adaxial surfaces scabridulous, occasionally also hairy.

hairy at the apices and on the margins, hairs to 6 mm;

ligules 0.5-1.2 mm;

blades 7-30 cm long, 2.5-7 mm wide, flat to loosely involute, glabrous abaxially, scabrous adaxially, margins sharply scabrous.

(3)5-16(20) cm long, 2-8.5 cm wide, oblong to ovate, condensed to open;

primary branches 0.4-5 cm, appressed or diverging 20-80° from the rachises;

pulvini glabrous or hairy;

pedicels 0.2-3 mm, stout, straight, stiff, usually divergent, occasionally appressed.

10-30 cm long, 1-6 cm wide, oblong, condensed, interrupted below;

primary branches 1-11 cm, appressed or diverging to 40° from the rachises, naked basally;

pulvini glabrous;

pedicels 0.5-25 mm, with a narrow band or abscission line below the apices.

6-20 mm long, 2-4 mm wide, ovate-lanceolate, plumbeous, greenish, with 10-40 florets;

disarticulation below the florets, each floret falling as a unit, rachillas persistent.

5.5-16 mm long, 2.7-9 mm wide, ovate, flattened, greenish to stramineous, sometimes with a reddish-purple tinge, with 4-22 florets;

disarticulation below the glumes, spikelets falling intact.

broadly ovate to lanceolate, membranous, usually glandular;

lower glumes 1.2-2 mm, usually 1-veined;

upper glumes 1.2-2.6 mm, often 3-veined;

lemmas 2-2.8 mm, broadly ovate, membranous, keels with 1-3 crateriform glands, apices obtuse to acute;

paleas 1.2-2.1 mm, hyaline, keels scabrous, sometimes also ciliate, cilia to 0.3 mm, apices obtuse to acute;

anthers 3, 0.2-0.5 mm, yellow.

equal, 3-4.5 mm, ovate, chartaceous;

lemmas 3-5 mm, broadly lanceolate, chartaceous to leathery, lateral veins green, apices acute;

paleas 3-5 mm, chartaceous to hyaline, keels broadly winged below, forming a wing or tooth on each side that often projects beyond the lemma bases, apices acuminate;

anthers 3, 1.4-2.8 mm, golden-yellow.

0.5-0.7 mm, globose to broadly ellipsoid, smooth to faintly striate, not grooved, reddish-brown or translucent.

1-2 mm, ellipsoid, adaxial surfaces flattened, reddish-brown.

= 20.

= 40.