Flora of North America species comparison

5-40 cm, erect to geniculate;

nodes usually pubescent.

to 135(150) cm, erect, geniculate, or decumbent;

nodes glabrous or pubescent.

with stripes of hairs;

ligules 0.3-0.8 mm;

auricles usually absent, shorter than 2 mm if present;

blades to 9 cm long, to 4 mm wide, both surfaces sparsely to densely hairy, hairs spreading.

open, pubescent or glabrous;

auricles present or absent;

ligules hyaline, truncate, erose;

blades flat to more or less involute, more or less pubescent on both sides.

usually spikelike racemes, sometimes spikes, all customarily called spikes, with 3 spikelets at each node, central spikelets usually sessile, sometimes pedicellate, pedicels to 2 mm, lateral spikelets usually pedicellate, pedicels curved or straight, sometimes all 3 spikelets sessile in cultivated plants;

disarticulation usually in the rachises, the spikelets falling in triplets, cultivated forms generally not disarticulating.

2.5-6.2 cm long, 4-6 mm wide, often partially enclosed at maturity, pale green.

with 1 floret;

glumes awnlike, usually exceeding the floret.

straight, usually slightly divergent at maturity.

usually tightly enclosed in the lemma and palea at maturity.

spikelets: glumes to 17 mm long, to 0.8 mm wide basally, distinctly flattened near the base;

lemmas 4.5-7.5 mm, usually sparsely pubescent towards the base, glabrous distally, awned, awns 5.6-9.8 mm, often slightly divergent at maturity;

anthers 0.6-1.2 mm.

spikelets bisexual;

florets sessile;

rachillas prolonged beyond the floret;

lemmas ovate, glabrous to pubescent, 5-veined, usually awned, rarely unawned;

paleas almost equal to the lemmas, narrowly ovate, keeled;

lodicules 2, broadly lanceolate, margins ciliate;

anthers 3, usually yellowish.

spikelets usually sterile;

glumes to 17.5 mm, distinctly flattened near the base;

lemmas 1.7-4.4 mm, blunt to acute, usually unawned, rarely awned, awns to 1.2 mm.

spikelets usually sterile or staminate, often bisexual in cultivated forms;

florets pedicellate, usually reduced;

lemmas awned or unawned.

= 14.

= 14, 28, 42.