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.

15-100 cm tall, 0.5-1(2) mm thick, sprawling to erect, without cormlike bases, freely branching and rooting from the lower nodes;

nodes prominent, glabrous or pubescent;

internodes not succulent, pilose.

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.

shorter than the internodes, rounded, hairs papillose-based;

collars pilose;

ligules 0.2-0.5 mm;

blades 2-7 cm long, 5-20 mm wide, 4-6 times longer than wide, lanceolate, thin, flat, sparsely to densely pilose, hairs papillose-based, bases asymmetrically cordate to subcordate, lower margins ciliate, papillose.

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.

4-24 cm, almost as wide as long, diffuse, partially included or exerted;

primary branches to 10 cm, alternate, ascending to reflexed, branching in the distal 2/3;

pedicels 9-20 mm, threadlike.

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

1-1.4 mm long, 0.5-0.6 mm wide, not secund, lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid, plano-convex in side view, sparsely pubescent.

0.4-0.8 mm, 1/3 – 1/2 as long as the spikelets, 1-3-veined, subacute;

upper glumes 0.8-1.2 mm, arising 0.2 mm above the lower glumes, 3-5-veined;

lower florets sterile;

lower lemmas 0.1-0.2 mm longer than the upper glumes, 3-5-veined;

lower paleas 0.5-0.8 mm, hyaline;

upper florets 0.8-1.2 mm long, 0.4-0.6 mm wide, finely rugose, lemmas strongly convex.

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.