Flora of North America species comparison

25-80 cm, rooting at the nodes.

usually hollow, sometimes solid.

usually scabridulous or hirtellous;

ligules 2-8 mm;

blades 5-30 cm long, 3-11(14) mm wide, abaxial surfaces scabrous, adaxial surfaces sometimes scabridulous to scabrous, sometimes sparsely hairy, sometimes papillose.

distichous;

sheaths usually open to the base, varying to closed for nearly their full length;

auricles present or absent;

abaxial ligules absent;

adaxial ligules scarious or membranous, sometimes puberulent or scabridulous, usually not ciliate, cilia sometimes shorter than the base;

pseudopetioles rarely present;

blades usually linear, sometimes broadly so, venation parallel;

cross sections non-Kranz, mesophyll nonradiate, adaxial palisade layer absent, fusoid and arm cells usually absent;

midribs usually simple;

adaxial bulliform cells present;

stomates with parallel-sided subsidiary cells;

epidermes usually lacking bicellular microhairs, sometimes with unicellular microhairs, papillae usually absent, when present, rarely more than 1 per cell.

10-45 cm;

branches 2-5 per node, eventually widely spreading;

branches to 12 cm, with 5-15(19) spikelets;

pedicels 1-6 mm.

usually terminal, panicles, spikes, or racemes, usually ebracteate;

disarticulation usually below the florets, sometimes below the glumes, at the rachis nodes, or at the inflorescence bases.

10-25 mm long, 1.5-3 mm wide, cylindrical and terete except slightly laterally compressed at anthesis, rectangular in side view, with 7-16 florets.

usually bisexual, infrequently unisexual or mixed, usually laterally compressed or not compressed, occasionally dorsally compressed, with 1-30 sexual florets, distal floret(s) often reduced, infrequently spikelets with 1-2 reduced or staminate basal florets and a single terminal sexual floret.

obtuse to rounded;

lower glumes 1-2.5 mm;

upper glumes 2.5-4.5 mm;

lemmas 3.5-5 mm, the submarginal veins often longer than those adjacent to the midvein, veins scabridulous, smooth or scabridulous between the veins, apices truncate to rounded, crenulate;

paleas from slightly shorter to slightly longer than the lemmas, keels winged distally, apices bifid, teeth about 0.2 mm;

anthers 0.8-1.5 mm.

usually 2, upper or lower glumes sometimes absent, rarely both glumes absent;

lemmas without uncinate hairs, awned or not, awns single, basal to apical;

paleas usually well-developed, sometimes reduced or absent;

lodicules 2(3), usually lanceolate and broadly membranous distally, rarely truncate and fleshy, usually not veined or obscurely veined, sometimes distinctly veined, sometimes ciliate;

anthers (1, 2)3;

ovaries glabrous or sometimes hairy distally, sometimes with an apical appendage;

haustorial synergids absent;

styles (1)2 (-4), bases close together, sometimes fused.

1.5-2.5 mm.

hila linear, elliptic, ovate, or punctate;

endosperm usually hard, sometimes soft or liquid, with or without lipids, starch grains compound or simple;

embryos less than 1/2 the length of the caryopses;

epiblasts usually present;

scutellar cleft usually absent;

mesocotyl internode usually absent;

embryonic leaf margins overlapping, x = 7, 10.

= 40.