Flora of North America species comparison

29-100 cm, forming corms, corms almost sessile on the connecting rhizomes;

internodes scabridulous above the nodes.

(4)9-250 cm, sometimes forming a basal corm;

nodes and internodes usually glabrous.

usually scabridulous, sometimes sparsely pilose;

ligules 2-6 mm;

blades 1.5-5 mm wide, abaxial surfaces scabridulous, adaxial surfaces with hairs.

closed almost to the top;

auricles sometimes present;

ligules thinly membranous, erose to lacerate, usually glabrous, those of the lower leaves shorter than those of the upper leaves;

blades flat or folded, glabrous or hairy, particularly on the adaxial surfaces, sometimes scabrous.

7-30 cm;

branches 2-6.5 cm, appressed, usually straight, with 1-5 spikelets;

pedicels straight;

disarticulation above the glumes.

terminal panicles;

primary branches often appressed;

secondary branches appressed or divergent;

pedicels either more or less straight or sharply bent below the spikelets, scabrous to strigose distally;

disarticulation below the glumes in species with sharply bent pedicels, above the glumes in other species.

6-24 mm, with 4-7 bisexual florets, base of the distal florets concealed at anthesis;

rachilla internodes 1-2 mm, not swollen when fresh, not wrinkled when dry.

with 1-7 bisexual florets, terminating in a sterile structure, the rudiment, composed of 1-4 sterile florets;

rudiments sometimes morphologically distinct from the bisexual florets, sometimes similar but smaller.

from (1/2)2/3 as long as to equaling the spikelets;

lower glumes 5.5-10.5 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, 3-5-veined;

upper glumes 6-14 mm long, 2.3-3.5 mm wide, 5-7-veined;

lemmas 6-12 mm, glabrous, smooth or scabrous, 7-11-veined, veins prominent, apices emarginate to acute, unawned;

paleas about 3/4 the length of the lemmas;

anthers 3, 1.5-4 mm;

rudiments 1.5-5 mm, truncate to tapering, sometimes resembling the bisexual florets in shape.

membranous or chartaceous, distal margins wide, translucent;

lower glumes 1-9-veined;

upper glumes 1-11-veined;

calluses glabrous;

lemmas membranous basally, sometimes becoming coriaceous at maturity, glabrous or with hairs, (4)5-15-veined, usually unawned, sometimes awned, awns to 12 mm, straight;

paleas from 1/2 as long as to almost equaling the lemmas, keels usually ciliate;

lodicules fused into a single, collarlike structure extending 1/2 - 2/3 around the base of the ovaries;

anthers (2)3.

usually 2-3 mm, smooth, glabrous, longitudinally furrowed, falling from the floret when mature, x = 9.

=18.