Flora of North America species comparison

10-100 cm, 2-10 mm thick, erect, simple or sparingly branched basally;

nodes sericeous, pilose or glabrous;

internodes usually glaucous.

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

nodes sparsely to densely 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.

often crowded basally;

sheaths rounded, glabrous or hirsute, hairs fragile, papillose-based, margins sometimes ciliate distally;

ligules 0.6-2 mm;

blades 4-23 cm long, 1-10 mm wide, erect to spreading, flat or sometimes involute (on sterile branches), often curling at maturity, glaucous, abaxial surfaces sometimes with prominent papillae along the midribs, bases rounded or narrowing to the sheaths, margins cartilaginous, ciliate basally, scabridulous elsewhere, apices acute.

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.

2.1-4.2 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, usually ovoid, glabrous.

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

1.2-2.4 mm, 1/2 - 3/4 as long as the spikelets, attenuate;

upper glumes and lower lemmas similar, 7-11-veined, acuminate, extending 0.3-1.2 mm beyond the upper florets;

lower florets sterile;

lower paleas 0.8-2 mm;

upper florets 1.5-2.4 mm long, 0.7-1.2 mm wide, ovoid to ellipsoid, smooth, nigrescent.

panicles 7-31 cm long, 3-15 cm wide;

rachises glabrous, tending to break at maturity;

branches usually alternate, slender, stiff, ascending to divergent;

pedicels 1-15 mm, appressed.

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.