Leymus triticoides
Leymus arenarius
beardless lyme grass, beardless wildrye, creeping wildrye
elyme des sables d'Europe, European dunegrass, lymegrass, sand ryegrass
45-125 cm tall, 1.8-3 mm thick, solitary or few together.
50-150 cm tall, (2)3-6 mm thick, usually glabrous throughout, occasionally pubescent distally to 5 mm below the spike.
exceeded by the spikes, often basally concentrated;
sheaths glabrous or hairy, hairs 0.5-1 mm;
auricles to 1 mm;
ligules 0.2-1.3 mm, truncate, erose;
blades 10-35 cm long, 3.5-10 mm wide, flat to involute, usually stiffly ascending, adaxial surfaces usually scabrous, often also sparsely hairy, hairs to 0.8 mm, most abundant proximally, veins 11-27, closely spaced, subequal, prominently ribbed.
exceeded by the spikes;
ligules 0.3-2.5 mm;
blades 3-11 mm wide, with 15-40 adaxial veins.
5-20 cm long, 5-15 mm wide, with 2 spikelets at midspike, sometimes 1 or 3 at other nodes;
internodes 5-11.5 mm, usually mostly smooth and glabrous, sometimes strigillose distally, edges ciliate, cilia to 0.4 mm.
12-35 cm long, 15-25 mm wide, usually with 2 spikelets per node;
internodes 8-12 mm, surfaces glabrous, edges ciliate.
10-22 mm, with 3-7 florets.
12-30 mm, with 2-5 florets.
5-16 mm long, 0.5-1.2 mm wide, bases not overlapping, glabrous and smooth proximally, scabrous distally, tapering from below midlength to the subulate apices, stiff, keeled, the central portion thicker than the margins, 1(3)-veined, veins inconspicuous at midlength;
calluses usually glabrous, occasionally with a few hairs, hairs about 0.1 mm;
lemmas 5-12 mm, usually glabrous, occasionally sparsely hairy, hairs to 0.3 mm, apices acute, usually awned, awns to 3 mm;
anthers 3-6 mm, dehiscent.
12-30 mm long, 2-3.5 mm wide, lanceolate, tapering from below midlength, stiff, glabrous towards the base and usually distally, sometimes pubescent distally, the central portion thicker than the margins, 3(5)-veined at midlength, keeled or rounded over the midvein, midveins and sometimes the margins with hairs to about 1.3 mm, apices acuminate;
lemmas 12-25 mm, densely villous, hairs 0.3-0.7 mm, 5-7-veined, acute, occasionally awned, awns to 3 mm;
anthers 6-9 mm, dehiscent.
= 28.
= 56.
Leymus triticoides
Leymus arenarius
Leymus triticoides grows in dry to moist, often saline meadows. Its range extends from southern British Columbia to Montana, south to California, Arizona, and New Mexico, but its populations are widely scattered. It is not known from Mexico. There is considerable variation within the species, but no pattern of variation suggesting the existence of infraspecific taxa is known. It is very similar to L. multicaulis, strains of which were initially released as L. triticoides by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The most consistent differences between them appear to be in the venation of the leaf blades and the vestiture of the calluses. Leymus triticoides is also very similar to L. simplex, differing from it in the number of spikelets at the midspike nodes.
Leymus triticoides hybridizes with other species of Leymus; hybrids with L. mollis are called L. xvancouverensis (see p. 358), those with L. condensatus are called L. xmultiflorus (see p. 362). Hybrids with L. cinereus are known, but have not been formally named. Plants identified as Elymus arenicolus Scribn. & J.G. Sm. are here included in L. flavescens, but may represent hybrids between L. triticoides and L. flavescens.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Leymus arenarius is native to Europe. It has become established in sandy habitats around the Great Lakes and the coast of Greenland. It has also been found at a few other widely scattered locations. It is sometimes cultivated, forming large, attractive, blue-green clumps, but its tendency to spread may be undesirable.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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