Flora of North America species comparison

20-120 cm, erect to decumbent, often rooting at the lower nodes, branching above the bases.

not aromatic;

sheaths open;

auricles absent;

ligules membranous, ciliate.

terminal and axillary, solitary, 2-sided rames, these sometimes fascicled and partially enclosed in subtending leaf sheaths at maturity;

disarticulation in the rames, beneath the sessile spikelets.

in heterogamous sessile-pedicellate pairs.

adnate to the rame axes, concealed by the sessile spikelets.

spikelets hemispherical, partly embedded in the rame axes;

lower glumes as long as the spikelets, indurate, alveolate, indistinctly 7-11-veined, not keeled, margins involute;

upper glumes chartaceous, 3-veined, usually adherent to the rame axes;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets bisexual;

anthers 3.

spikelets as long as or longer than the sessile spikelets, ovate;

lower glumes dorsally compressed, 5-9-veined;

upper glumes laterally compressed, 5-7-veined;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets staminate;

anthers 3.

= 7 (probably).