Flora of North America species comparison

30-130 cm, terete to slightly compressed.

20-80 cm, often in small clumps, compressed, erect or decumbent, glaucous;

lower nodes pubescent;

upper nodes glabrous.

laterally compressed, glabrous or sparsely to densely pilose or villous, especially at the summit;

ligules less than 0.5 mm, membranous, erose, often brownish;

blades 10-50 cm long, 4-12 mm wide, erect, adaxial surfaces pilose at least basally, glabrous or pilose abaxially.

10-40 cm, 1/4 - 2/3 as wide as long, well-exserted at anthesis;

branches relatively few, stiffly spreading or ascending; ultimate branchlets 1-sided;

pedicels 0.1-3 mm, scabridulous to scabrous, appressed.

5-15 cm long, 0.8-1.5 cm wide;

branches 2-6, spikelike, erect, puberulent, 3-angled; ultimate branchlets 1-sided;

pedicels paired, congested, shorter pedicels 0.1-1 mm, longer pedicels 1.5-2.5 mm.

2.3-3.9 mm, narrowly ellipsoid to ovoid, usually subsessile, usually pale to yellowish-green, glabrous, often falcate and gaping at the apices, rarely lanceolate, densely crowded on short, appressed branchlets, set obliquely on short pedicels.

2.8-4.4 mm, ellipsoid, terete to slightly laterally compressed, glabrous, obtuse.

A-A as long as the spikelets, 3-veined, keels scabrous, apices acute;

upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal, keeled, beaked, usually gaping at the apices;

lower florets sterile;

lower paleas subequal to the lower lemmas;

upper florets 1.5-2.2 mm long, about 1 mm wide, 2/5 – 3/4 as long as the spikelets, apices with a tuft of minute, thick hairs;

upper lemmas thick, stiff, clasping the upper paleas throughout their length.

about 3/4 as long as the spikelets, 5- or 7-veined;

upper glumes and lower lemmas equaling the spikelets, 5-9-veined;

lower florets staminate;

lower paleas 2.5-3.5 mm;

upper florets puberulent at the bases and apices.

sheaths ascending, pubescent to pilose;

upper sheaths glabrous;

ligules 0.2-2 mm, membranous, truncate, irregularly denticulate;

blades 3-26 cm long, 2-7 mm wide, ascending, firm, glaucous, sparsely pilose near the base, often scabrous on the margins, involute towards the apices.

= 18, 36.

= 20, 36, 40.