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.

(5)13-150 cm, usually erect, compressed, branching;

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.

sparsely or densely hairy, particularly distally, hairs papillose-based;

ligules 0.6-3.2 mm, membranous, truncate, erose;

blades 6-25 cm long, 2-21 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose on both surfaces.

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.

8-30 cm, with 3-100 racemose branches;

branches 1-19 cm, ascending to reflexed.

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

2-4 mm, distant to imbricate, green, magenta, or maroon, with 2-5(6) 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.

sometimes exceeding the florets, linear to narrowly elliptic, acute, attenuate, or aristate;

lower glumes 1.6-4 mm, linear to lanceolate;

upper glumes 1.6-3.6 mm, lanceolate;

lemmas 0.9-1.7 mm, glabrous or somewhat sericeous, acute to obtuse;

paleas glabrous or sericeous;

anthers 3, 0.2-0.3 mm.

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

0.8-1.2 mm long, 0.5-0.6 mm wide, nearly round in cross section, with or without a ventral groove, apices acute to broadly obtuse.

= 40, 60, 80.