Flora of North America species comparison

15-130 cm, slender to stout, not woody, erect to decumbent, straight to zigzag, simple to profusely branched;

nodes sparsely to densely pilose.

50-300 cm tall, 2-4 mm thick, often compressed, erect or ascending, hard, becoming almost woody;

nodes swollen, glabrous or pubescent;

internodes glabrous, glaucous.

rounded, hirsute or hispid, hairs papillose-based;

ligules membranous, ciliate, cilia 0.5-1.5 mm;

blades 5-40 cm long, 3-18 mm wide, linear, spreading.

not keeled, shorter than or equal to the internodes, glabrous or the lower sheaths at least partially pubescent, hairs papillose-based;

ligules 0.3-1.5 mm;

blades 10-60 cm long, 3-20 mm wide, elongate, flat, abaxial surfaces and margins scabrous, adaxial surfaces occasionally pubescent near the base, with prominent, white midveins, bases rounded to narrowed.

13-50 cm long, 7-24 cm wide, usually more than 1/2 as long as the plants, included at the base or exserted at maturity, disarticulating at the base of the peduncles at maturity and becoming a tumbleweed;

branches spreading;

pedicels 0.5-2.8 mm, scabrous, pilose.

10-45 cm, to 1/2 as wide as long, open or somewhat contracted, with many spikelets;

branches 4-12 cm, opposite or alternate, ascending to spreading;

pedicels 0.3-2.5 mm, scabridulous to scabrous, appressed to diverging less than 45° from the branch axes.

1.9-4 mm, ellipsoid to lanceoloid, often red-purple, glabrous.

2.4-3.4 mm long, 1-1.3 mm wide, ellipsoid-lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid, often purplish, glabrous, acute.

1.4-2.2 mm, 1/3 – 1/2 as long as the spikelets, 3-5-veined, obtuse;

upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal, glabrous, 5-9-veined, margins scarious, acute;

lower florets staminate;

upper florets 1.8-2.8 mm long, 0.9-1.1 mm wide, smooth, lustrous, acute.

florets sterile;

lower glumes 1/3– 1/2 as long as the spikelets, 1-3-veined;

upper glumes 1.8-3.1 mm, 7-9-veined, midveins scabridulous;

lower lemmas 1.9-3 mm, extending 0.4-1.1 mm beyond the upper florets, often stiff, straight, prominently veined distally;

upper florets stramineous or nigrescent, sometimes with a prominent lunate scar at the base, often disarticulating before the glumes, leaving the empty glumes and lower lemmas temporarily persisting on the panicles.

= 18.

= 18, 36.