Flora of North America species comparison

30-130 cm, terete to slightly compressed.

20-60 cm tall, 0.8-1.2 mm thick, shortly decumbent to geniculate basally, erect distally;

nodes glabrous;

internodes 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.

shorter or longer than the internodes, rounded, smooth, glabrous;

ligules about 1 mm;

blades 5-15 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, flat, linear, glabrous or with a few marginal cilia near the base, bases contracted, apices long-acute.

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.

10-20 cm long, 6-12 cm wide, exserted or partially included;

primary branches alternate, ascending to strongly divergent, developing secondary branches in the basal 1/3 – 1/2, pedicels 4-9 mm, ascending.

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.

2.7-3.2 mm long, 1-1.2 mm wide, ovoid-ellipsoid, green tinged with purple, glaucous, glabrous, acute.

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.

0.7-1.1 mm, about 2/5 as long as the spikelets, acute to attenuate;

upper glumes and lower lemmas similar, equaling the spikelets, 11-13-veined, tapering to apiculate apices;

lower paleas 1-2 mm;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets about 2.2 mm, ellipsoid, smooth, shiny, yellow at maturity, apices acute.

= 18, 36.

= 54.