Gymnopogon ambiguus
Gymnopogon
bearded skeletongrass, eastern beardgrass
skeletongrass
20-100 cm, suberect to spreading, stiff, simple to sparingly branched.
10-100 cm, erect to decumbent, simple or sparingly branched.
mostly glabrous, throats sometimes pubescent;
collars conspicuously pubescent;
ligules about 0.2 mm;
blades (1.5)2.5-12 cm long, (2)5-10(18) mm wide, somewhat cordate at the base, mostly glabrous, often pubescent near the basal margins.
cauline, evidently distichous;
sheaths often strongly overlapping;
auricles absent;
ligules 0.1-0.5 mm, membranous, ciliate;
blades linear to ovate-lanceolate, lacking midribs.
(6)11.5-30(35) cm;
branches (3)7-24 cm, stiffly spreading to somewhat reflexed, spikelet-bearing from the base, spikelets remote to slightly imbricate.
terminal, panicles of spikelike branches, these subdigitately or racemosely arranged, usually strongly divergent to reflexed, sometimes naked basally, spikelets borne singly.
with 1(2) florets.
widely spaced to slightly imbricate, appressed to the branches, shortly pedicellate, laterally compressed, with 1-2(4) florets, only the lowest 1(2) floret(s) bisexual;
rachilla extensions present, usually with a highly reduced, sterile floret(s);
disarticulation above the glumes, florets falling together.
4-7 mm;
calluses bearded;
bisexual lemmas 2.5-5(6) mm, awns 4-12.2 mm;
second florets often reduced to an obliquely inserted 2.4-6.2 mm awn;
anthers 3, 0.8-1.2 mm.
subequal, usually exceeding the bisexual florets, narrow, acuminate, 1-veined;
lemmas of bisexual florets 3-veined, midveins prominent, apices minutely bidentate, usually awned from between the teeth, rarely unawned;
anthers (2)3.
2-3 mm long, 0.2-0.5 mm wide.
= 10.
= 40.
Gymnopogon ambiguus
Gymnopogon
Gymnopogon ambiguus grows in sandy pine woodlands of the southeastern United States, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. It often grows with G. brevifolius, from which it differs in being more robust, having long, wider leaves, longer lemma awns, and, usually, having panicle branches that are spikelet-bearing to the base. Although spikelets of Gymnopogon ambiguus usually have only one floret, several plants from Texas have been found in which two florets per spikelet were the norm.
There is an 1853 collection of G. ambiguus supposedly from Dona Ana County, New Mexico, but there have been no recent collections from anywhere near there; it is possible that the locality data on the label are incorrect.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Gymnopogon, a genus of around 15 species, extends from the United States to South America, with one additional species ranging from India to Thailand. Three species are native to the Flora region. Gymnopogon is most likely to be confused with Chloris, but its species differ from most species of Chloris in having a more highly reduced, sterile floret at the end of the rachilla extension and in its distichous leaves.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Plants with elongate rhizomes; panicle branches naked for at least 1/3 of their length | G. brevifolius |
1. Plants with short, knotty rhizomes or cespitose with a knotty base; panicle branches naked for less than 1/3 of their length, often spikelet-bearing to the base. | → 2 |
2. Lemma awns 4-12.2 mm long | G. ambiguus |
2. Lemma awns 0-2.2 mm long | G. chapmanianus |
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