Flora of North America species comparison

10-60(100) cm, decumbent-ascending, bases somewhat compressed-keeled;

internodes glabrous, shiny below the nodes.

3-15 cm;

internodes mostly scabridulous or pubescent, pubescent or strigose below the nodes.

glabrous, margins hyaline;

ligules 0.2-1 mm, firm, truncate, ciliate, without lateral lobes;

blades 2-7(11) cm long, 1-2.8(4) mm wide, flat, occasionally conduplicate, smooth or scabridulous abaxially, scabridulous adaxially, margins and midveins not conspicuously thickened, greenish, apices acute, not sharp.

often longer than the internodes, somewhat inflated, smooth or scabrous, keeled, margins scarious, not flattened, papery, or spirally coiled when old;

ligules 1.4-2.5 mm, membranous, acute, with lateral lobes;

blades 1-3 cm long, 0.6-1.5 mm wide, flat or involute, scabrous to strigose, midveins and margins thickened, whitish.

6-21 cm long, 4-16 cm wide, broadly ovoid, open;

primary branches 3-12 cm, capillary, lower branches spreading 30-90° from the rachises, never appearing fascicled;

pedicels 3-14 mm, longer than the spikelets.

2.5-8.5 cm long, 0.5-0.7 cm wide, contracted;

primary branches 1-2.2 cm, appressed, spikelet-bearing to the base, spikelets borne in subsessile-pedicellate pairs;

longer pedicels 3-6 mm, scabrous;

disarticulation beneath the spikelet pairs.

1.2-2.1 mm, occasionally with 2 or 3 florets.

2.5-5.1 mm, appressed.

equal, 0.6-1.7 mm, purplish, scabridulous, particularly on the veins, 1-veined, apices acute;

lemmas 1.2-2.1 mm, lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, somewhat plumbeous, glabrous, usually smooth, occasionally scabridulous near the apices, apices acute, unawned or mucronate, mucros to 0.3 mm;

paleas 1.2-2.1 mm, lanceolate, glabrous, acute;

anthers 1-1.3 mm, greenish-yellow to purplish at maturity.

2.3-5.1 mm, equaling or exceeding the florets;

lower glumes 2.3-4 mm, subulate, 2-veined, minutely to deeply bifid, teeth aristate or with awns to 1.3 mm;

upper glumes 3-5.1 mm, lanceolate, 1-veined, entire, acuminate;

lemmas 2.5-4.5 mm, narrowly lanceolate, light greenish-brown to purplish, scabrous, appressed-pubescent on the margins and midveins, apices acuminate, awned, awns 6-15 mm, stiff;

paleas 2.4-3.6 mm, lanceolate, intercostal region appressed-pubescent, apices acuminate;

anthers 0.5-0.8 mm, purplish to yellowish.

0.8-1 mm, fusiform, brownish.

1.5-2.3 mm, narrowly fusiform, brownish.

= 20, 22, 28.

= 20.