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.

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

nodes glabrous, often with a dark green band.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

= 18.

= 40.