Flora of North America species comparison

(10) 30-110 cm, round or basally compressed, tillering from the basal nodes, not branching from the aerial nodes, mostly glabrous, sometimes pilose basally;

internodes solid.

(30)60-250 cm, mostly erect, compressed, sometimes branching from the lower nodes;

internodes hollow.

sometimes with a pilose collar;

ligules 1-2 mm, truncate, erose;

blades (2)8-35 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, glabrous, strigose, or pilose.

glabrous, smooth or minutely scabrous;

ligules 1.5-3 mm, membranous, truncate, erose, sometimes appearing ciliate because of the hairs at the base of the blades;

blades 10-75 cm long, 4-7 mm wide, sometimes with stiff hairs behind the ligules, both surfaces scabridulous elsewhere.

8-20 cm, with 2-15 subdigitate or racemose branches;

secondary panicles often hidden in the lowest leaf sheaths;

branches 2-19 cm, ascending to spreading at maturity.

30-76 cm, with 25-75 racemose branches;

branches mostly 1-5(9) cm, steeply ascending to erect, stiff;

lower branches sometimes included in the upper leaf sheaths.

4-12 mm, light brown to dark olive green, with 4-13 florets, often widely diverging at anthesis.

2.8-3.4 mm, imbricate, with 3-4 florets.

narrowly triangular to ovate, acute;

lower glumes 2.3-4.8 mm;

upper glumes 3.3-6 mm;

lemmas 3.5-5 mm, membranous, ovate to obovate, lateral veins glabrous or sericeous, hairs often restricted to the basal portion, sometimes also sericeous on the midvein and between the veins, apices obtuse to truncate, usually emarginate, unawned, sometimes mucronate;

paleas ciliate on the margins;

anthers 3, 0.3-1.6 mm.

lanceolate, lower glumes 0.7-0.8 mm, acute to narrowly obtuse;

upper glumes 0.9-1.3 mm, obtuse;

lemmas 1-2 mm, broadly lanceolate, membranous, veins sericeous basally, apices obtuse to acute or apiculate;

paleas sericeous along the veins;

anthers 3, 0.2-0.4 mm.

1.5-2.3 mm long, 0.9-1 mm wide, strongly dorsally compressed.

0.5-1 mm long, 0.4-0.5 mm wide, elliptic to obovate, nearly round in cross section.

= 40, 60, 80.

= 40.