Flora of North America species comparison

40-400 cm, erect.

1.5-4 m tall, 8-16 mm thick below.

not aromatic;

sheaths open;

ligules membranous, truncate, ciliate;

blades flat.

crowded at the base;

sheaths glabrous or sparsely pubescent, margins glabrous or ciliate;

ligules 1-3 mm;

blades 30-80 cm long, 15-40 mm wide, adaxial surfaces pubescent near the bases, glabrous elsewhere, midveins whitish, conspicuous both ab- and adaxially.

30-50 cm long, 10-20 cm wide, exserted, dense, ovoid-ellipsoid, white, usually with more than 15 branches;

rachises 25-40 cm, hispid-pubescent, 3/4 - 4/5 as long as the panicles;

branches 10-25 cm long, 8-10 mm wide, often branched at the base;

internodes 3-5 mm, glabrous.

terminal, ovoid or corymbose panicles, with elongate rachises and numerous ascending, spikelike branches;

branches usually more than 10 cm long, with unequally pedicellate spikelet pairs, spikelets homogamous and homomorphic;

disarticulation below the glumes.

3-3.5 mm, lanceolate to lance-ovate;

callus hairs 4-6 mm, to twice as long as the spikelets, white.

membranous to coriaceous;

lower glumes broadly convex to weakly 2-keeled, without raised veins;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets bisexual;

upper lemmas entire and unawned or bidentate and awned from the sinuses;

anthers 2 or 3.

glabrous or puberulent distally;

awns of upper lemmas 5-15 mm, weakly geniculate.

free, x = 19.

short, blunt, pilose, with fine hairs, hairs often exceeding the spikelets.

pedicels 1-1.5 mm;

longer pedicels 2.5-3.5 mm, becoming somewhat recurved.

= 36, 38, 57.