Phalaris lemmonii |
Phalaris |
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Lemmon's Canary grass |
Canary grass |
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Habit | Plants annual. | Plants annual or perennial; sometimes cespitose, sometimes rhizomatous. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Culms | (7)25-150 cm. |
4-230 cm tall, erect or decumbent, sometimes swollen at the base, not branching above the base. |
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Leaves | more or less evenly distributed, glabrous; sheaths open for most of their length, uppermost sheaths often somewhat inflated; auricles absent; ligules hyaline, glabrous, truncate to acuminate, entire or lacerate; blades usually flat, sometimes revolute. |
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Panicles | (2)3-20 cm long, 0.6-1.5 cm wide, cylindrical, evidently branched below; branches to 2 cm, spikelets borne singly, not clustered. |
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Inflorescences | terminal panicles, sometimes spikelike, ovoid to cylindrical, dense, sometimes interrupted, with 10-200 spikelets borne singly or in clusters, spikelets homogamous in species with single spikelets, heterogamous in species with spikelets in clusters, lower spikelets in the clusters usually staminate, rarely sterile, terminal spikelets bisexual or pistillate. |
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Spikelets | homogamous, with (2)3 florets, terminal floret bisexual; disarticulation above the glumes, beneath the sterile florets. |
pedicellate, laterally compressed, with 1-3(4) florets, the terminal or only floret usually sexual, lower floret(s), if present, sterile; disarticulation above the glumes, beneath the sterile florets in species with solitary spikelets, in species with clustered spikelets usually at the base of the spikelet clusters, sometimes beneath the bisexual or pistillate spikelets. |
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Glumes | 4.5-6.7 mm long, 0.9-1.1 mm wide, acuminate, keels not or only slightly winged, wings to 0.2 mm wide, keels, lateral veins, and adjacent surfaces scabrous; sterile florets (1)2, 1-1.6 mm, densely appressed-hairy; bisexual florets 2.7-5.1 mm long, 1.2-1.6 mm wide, shiny, stramineous to gray-brown, mostly hairy with spreading hairs, apices glabrous, strongly acuminate to beaked; anthers 0.7-2 mm. |
subequal, exceeding the florets, 1-5-veined, keeled, keels often conspicuously winged; lower (sterile) florets reduced, varying from knoblike projections on the calluses of the bisexual florets to linear or lanceolate lemmas less than 3/4 as long as the bisexual florets; terminal florets usually bisexual, in the lower spikelets of a spikelet cluster the terminal florets pistillate or staminate, rarely sterile; lemmas of terminal florets coriaceous to indurate, shiny, glabrous or hairy, inconspicuously 5-veined, acute to acuminate or beaked, unawned; paleas similar to the lemmas in length and texture, enclosed by the lemmas at maturity, 1-veined, mostly glabrous, veins shortly hairy; lodicules absent or 2 and reduced; anthers 3; ovaries glabrous; styles 2, plumose. |
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Caryopses | shorter than the lemmas, concealed at maturity, with a reticulate pericarp, falling free of the lemma and palea; hila long-linear, x = 6, 7. |
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Ligules | 1.5-8 mm, acute; blades to 14 cm long, 1-8 mm wide, smooth, shiny, sometimes revolute. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Phalaris lemmonii |
Phalaris |
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Distribution |
CA
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AK; AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; HI; AB; BC; LB; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT |
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Discussion | Phalaris lemmonii is native to California, but it has also been found in Victoria, Australia. It grows in moist areas, and appears to hybridize with both P. caroliniana and P. angusta (Baldini 1995). The strongly beaked tips of the bisexual florets are a useful distinguishing feature. Beecher Crampton noted on one unusually small specimen (UTC 230918) that it was the vernal pool ecotype of the species. He did not publish his observations. Anderson (1961) and Baldini (1995) distinguished Phalaris lemmonii from P. platensis Henrard ex Wacht., a narrowly distributed South American taxon, arguing that it was slightly longer in the length of its ligules, glumes, florets, and anthers, but many California specimens fall within the range given for P. platensis rather than that for P. lemmonii. Phalaris lemmonii is the older name so, if further research shows that the two species should be combined, P. lemmonii will remain as the correct name for plants from the Flora region. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Phalaris has 22 species, most of which grow primarily in temperate regions. It is found in a wide range of habitats, although most species prefer somewhat mesic, disturbed areas. There are 11 species in the Flora region, 5 native and 6 introduced. The sterile florets of Phalaris are frequently mistaken for tufts of hair at the base of a solitary functional floret. Close examination will reveal that the hairs are actually growing from linear to narrowly lanceolate pieces of tissue. Developmental studies have shown that these structures are reduced lemmas. Many species of Phalaris are weedy. A few are cultivated for fodder, and one, P. canadensis, is grown for birdseed. In addition, the dense panicles of P. paradoxa are sometimes dyed green and used to simulate shrubs in landscape models. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24. | FNA vol. 24, p. 764. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Phalaris | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Name authority | Vasey | L. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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