Flora of North America species comparison

20-60(100) cm, not forming corms.

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

nodes and internodes usually glabrous.

glabrous or shortly and sparsely pubescent;

ligules 1-4 mm;

blades 7-15 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, usually involute.

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.

4-8(25) cm, narrowly cylindrical, lax, pale;

branches 1.5-4 cm, appressed to ascending, with 3-12(15) spikelets;

pedicels sharply bent below the spikelets;

disarticulation below 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.

6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret, sometimes purple-tinged.

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.

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.

4-6 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, ovate, 1-5-veined, acute;

upper glumes 6-8 mm long, about 1.5 mm wide, lanceolate, acute to acuminate;

lemmas 4-6.5 mm, lanceolate, 7-9-veined, papillose, margins and marginal veins pubescent, hairs 3.5-5 mm, not twisted;

rudiments 1-1.7 mm, ovoid, not resembling the bisexual florets.

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

=18, 36.