Flora of North America species comparison

slender, wiry, glabrous, often with minute purple streaks and dots, ascending from a decumbent base, often branching extensively at the base and rooting at the lower nodes.

10-75 cm, about 1 mm thick, simple or with erect basal branches;

nodes densely pilose, hairs ascending;

internodes glabrous or shortly pubescent distally.

usually shorter than the internodes, glabrous, margins short-ciliate;

ligules usually less than 0.3 mm, membranous, erose, ciliate;

blades 4-15 cm long (rarely longer), 2-3 mm wide, flat or slightly involute, glabrous on both surfaces, margins scabridulous, especially towards the apices, bases narrowed.

longer than the internodes, green to purplish, hispid, margins sparsely ciliate;

ligules 0.5-1.5 mm;

blades 3-32 cm long, 1-7 mm wide, ascending to erect, linear, narrowing basally, flat or the margins involute, surfaces sparsely hirsute or pilose (rarely glabrous), hairs near the base papillose-based, margins prominent, apices acute.

4-17 cm, 1/2 to nearly as wide as long;

branches few, capillary, ascending or spreading, scabridulous, with a few spikelets distally;

pedicels 0.5-10 mm.

5-45 cm long, 1-6 cm wide, at least 1/2 as long as the plants and 3 times longer than wide, open;

rachises glabrous;

primary branches usually alternate or subopposite, ascending to slightly divergent, secondary branches and pedicels attached to the distal 2/3;

secondary branches diverging;

pedicels 0.5-17 mm, ascending to appressed.

3.2-4 mm long, about 1.5 mm wide, broadly ellipsoid or obovoid, tuberculate, hispid, faintly veined, acute or acuminate at the apices.

2.5 - 3.7 mm long, 0.6-1.1 mm wide, narrowly ovoid, glabrous, acute;

lower glumes 0.8-1.3 mm, 1/3 – 1/2 as long as the spikelets, acuminate;

upper glumes 2.3-3.3 mm, 7-9-veined, exceeding the upper florets by about 0.6 mm;

lower florets sterile;

lower lemmas 2.2-2.7 mm, exceeding the upper florets by about 0.6 mm, 7- or 9-veined, apices scabridulous, pointed;

lower paleas absent;

upper florets 1.6-1.7 mm long, about 0.6 mm wide, usually smooth, usually pale, sometimes becoming dark at maturity.

usually less than 1 mm, obtuse or acute;

upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal, distinctly tuberculate, hispid, with stiff hairs arising from wartlike bases;

upper florets 2.7-3.2 mm long, 1.3-1.6 mm wide, obovoid or ellipsoid, nearly smooth, minutely papillose, or cross-rugulose, subacute to acute.

= unknown.

= 18.