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American dunegrass, American lyme grass, dune wildrye, dunegrass, elyme des sables d'amerique, sea lyme-grass, seigle de mer

Habit Plants not cespitose, strongly rhizomatous, occasionally slightly glaucous.
Culms

12-170 cm tall, 3-6 mm thick, usually densely pubescent below the spikes for 10-40+ mm.

Leaves

exceeded by the spikes;

auricles to 0.7 mm;

ligules 0.2-2.5 mm;

blades 10-94 cm long, 3-15 mm wide, adaxial surfaces scabridulous to scabrous, 20-40-veined, veins subequal, prominently ribbed, closely spaced.

Spikes

5-34 cm long, 10-20 mm wide, with 3-33 nodes, usually with 2 spikelets per node;

internodes 4.5-9.5 mm, surfaces and edges similar, hairs on the surfaces 0.1-0.5 mm, on the edges to 0.7 mm.

Spikelets

15-34 mm, with 3-6 florets.

Glumes

9-34 mm long, 1.5-4 mm wide, lanceolate, tapering from midlength or above, flat or rounded on the back, flexible, usually strigillose to pilose or villous, rarely almost glabrous, the central portion scarcely thicker than the margins, 3(5)-veined at midlength, apices acute;

lemmas 11-20 mm, densely hairy, hairs 0.5-1 mm, soft, apices acute, unawned;

anthers 4-9 mm, dehiscent.

Leymus mollis

Distribution
from FNA
AK; CA; IL; MA; ME; MI; NH; OR; PA; WA; WI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Greenland
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Discussion

Leymus mollis is native to Asia and North America. It is treated here as having two very similar subspecies that have somewhat different ranges. The subspecies are sometimes treated as separate species, but they may be little more than environmentally induced variants. Both subspecies grow primarily on coastal beaches, close to the high tide line, and along some inland waterways, particularly in the arctic. Reports of L. ajanensis (V.N. Vassil.) Tzvelev from North America are based on specimens of L. mollis (D. Murray, University of Alaska, pers. comm. 2006).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Spikes 12-34 cm long, with 12-33 nodes; basal blades 5-15 mm wide; culms 50-170 cm tall
subsp. mollis
1. Spikes 5-13(16) cm long, with 3-14 nodes; basal blades 3-8 mm wide; culms 12-70 cm tall
subsp. villosissimus
Source FNA vol. 24, p. 356.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Triticeae > Leymus
Sibling taxa
L. ambiguus, L. angustus, L. arenarius, L. californicus, L. cinereus, L. condensatus, L. flavescens, L. innovatus, L. multicaulis, L. pacificus, L. racemosus, L. salina, L. simplex, L. triticoides, L. ×multiflorus, L. ×vancouverensis
Subordinate taxa
L. mollis subsp. mollis, L. mollis subsp. villosissimus
Synonyms Elymus mollis, Elymus arenarius var. villosus, Elymus arenarius var. mollis, Elymus arenarius subsp. mollis
Name authority (Trin.) Pilg.
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