Flora of North America species comparison

60-130 cm, thick, glabrous, rooting profusely at the lower nodes;

nodes glabrous, often with a dark green band.

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

lower nodes pubescent;

upper nodes glabrous.

usually shorter than the internodes, glabrous, prominently veined;

ligules 0.5-1.5 mm;

blades 15-40 cm long, 7-25 mm wide, tapering from midlength, flat, both surfaces glabrous, bases subcordate, margins scabrous to smooth, widest at the base, apices acute.

10-40 cm long, 7-20 cm wide, open, with straight, rigid rachises;

branches whorled, stiffly ascending, with short, appressed, higher order branches; ultimate branchlets 1-sided, with solitary spikelets or small clusters of spikelets;

pedicels 0.1-1.5 mm.

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.

5.5-7 mm long, about 1 mm wide, narrowly lanceoloid, glabrous.

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

spreading apart at maturity, keeled, prominently veined, scabrous along the midveins;

lower glumes nearly as long as the lower lemmas;

upper glumes and lower lemmas 3-veined, spreading, greatly exceeding the upper florets, lower lemmas longer than the upper glumes, arcuate;

lower florets sterile;

lower paleas thin;

upper florets 1.9-2.2 mm, less than 1/3 as long as the spikelets, obovoid, lustrous, pale to brownish, acute, often short-stipitate.

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.

= 40.

= 20, 36, 40.