Piptatherum canadense
Canada mountain-rice grass, Canadian piptatherum, Canadian ricegrass, oryzopsis du Canada
30-90 cm, glabrous;
basal branching mostly intravaginal.
basally concentrated;
sheaths smooth or scabridulous;
ligules 1-4 mm, hyaline, truncate, rounded, or acute;
basal blades 4-15 cm long, 1-1.5 mm wide when flat, 0.5-0.8 mm in diameter when folded or convolute.
9-15 cm, lower nodes with 1-2 branches;
branches 1-6 cm, somewhat flexuous, ascending to divergent.
subequal, 3-6 mm long, 1.3-2 mm wide, ovate, 1-3-veined, apices acute to mucronate;
florets 2.2-4.5 mm, obovoid, dorsally compressed;
calluses 0.2-0.5 mm, hairy, disarticulation scars elliptic;
lemmas coriaceous, evenly pubescent, tan at maturity, margins widely separated even when immature;
awns 5-15 mm, persistent, once- or twice-geniculate, first segments strongly twisted;
paleas similar to the lemmas in length, texture, and pubescence;
anthers 1-2 mm;
ovaries developing 2 conelike style bases, each bearing a single, unbranched style.
about 2.5 mm long, 0.5 mm thick;
hila linear, almost equaling the caryopses.
= 22.
Piptatherum canadense
Piptatherum canadense grows in grasslands and open woods, from the British Columbia-Alberta border east to Newfoundland, extending south into the Great Lakes region and the northeastern United States. Its persistent, longer awns distinguish P. canadense from P. pungens.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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