Leymus triticoides
Leymus multicaulis
beardless lyme grass, beardless wildrye, creeping wildrye
many-stem wildrye
45-125 cm tall, 1.8-3 mm thick, solitary or few together.
50-80 cm tall, 1.5-3 mm thick, usually few together, glabrous, mostly smooth, scabrous beneath the spikes.
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;
sheaths glabrous, smooth;
auricles to 1 mm;
ligules 1-2 mm;
blades 3-8 mm wide, flat or the margins slightly involute, grayish green, sometimes glaucous, abaxial surfaces smooth, adaxial surfaces glabrous, with both primary and secondary veins, primary veins 5-7, not prominently ribbed.
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.
5-14 cm long, 6-13 mm wide, with 2-4(6) spikelets per node;
internodes 4-6 mm, glabrous or strigillose, hairs about 0.1 mm, edges ciliate, cilia to 0.4 mm.
10-22 mm, with 3-7 florets.
8-15 mm, with 2-6 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.
4-10 mm long, to 1 mm wide, stiff, keeled, glabrous, scabrous, the central portion thicker than the margins, bases not overlapping, tapering from below midlength to the subulate apices, inconspicuously 1-veined at midlength;
calluses usually with at least some hairs, hairs about 0.2 mm;
lemmas 5-9 mm, mostly glabrous and smooth, scabrous distally, apices tapering to an awn, awns 2-3 mm, scabrous;
anthers 3-4 mm, dehiscent.
= 28.
= 42.
Leymus triticoides
Leymus multicaulis
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 multicaulis is native to Eurasia, extending from the Volga River delta in Russia to Xinjiang, China. In its native range, it grows in alkaline meadows and saline soils, and as a weed in fields, near roads, and around human habitations. It is very similar to L. triticoides, and hybrids with that species are highly fertile. A cultivar of L. multicaulis, 'Shoshone', that was originally thought to be a productive strain of L. triticoides, has been widely distributed for forage. Leymus multicaulis differs from L. triticoides primarily in having both primary and secondary veins in its blades, and small hairs on its calluses. Because it has only recently been realized that L. multicaulis has been introduced to North America, its distribution in North America is unknown.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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