Piptatherum miliaceum
Piptatherum pungens
smilo grass
mountain ricegrass, sharp piptatherum, short-awn mountain-rice grass
40-150 cm, glabrous, often branching at the lower cauline nodes;
basal branching extravaginal.
10-90 cm, usually glabrous, occasionally puberulent beneath the nodes;
basal branching intravaginal.
not basally concentrated;
sheaths glabrous, persistent;
ligules of lower leaves 0.5-1.5 mm, truncate;
ligules of upper leaves 1.5-4 mm, rounded to sharply acute;
blades 5-30 cm long, 2-10 mm wide, flat, smooth on both surfaces.
basally concentrated;
sheaths smooth or somewhat scabrous;
ligules 0.5-2.5 mm, truncate to acute;
blades (6)18-45 cm long, 0.5-1.8 mm wide, flat to convolute, abaxial surfaces scabridulous to scabrous, adaxial surfaces scabrous.
10-40 cm, lax, lower nodes either with 3-7 branches bearing 10-40 functional spikelets, or with 15-30+ branches with no functional spikelets;
primary branches spreading to ascending;
lower branches 3-8 cm;
secondary branches diverging from the primary branches.
4-6 cm, lower nodes with 1-2 primary branches;
branches 0.8-4 cm, straight, usually strongly ascending, ascending to divergent at anthesis.
2.5-3.5 mm, acuminate, 3-veined;
florets 1.5-2 mm, dorsally compressed;
calluses about 0.3 mm, glabrous, disarticulation scars circular;
lemmas stiffly membranous, glabrous, margins fused at the base, not overlapping, light brown at maturity;
awns 3-4 mm;
anthers 2-2.5 mm, penicillate;
ovaries rounded, bearing two styles.
subequal, 3.5-4.5 mm long, 1.4-2 mm wide, from 1 mm shorter than to slightly exceeding the florets, ovate, usually 1-veined, sometimes 3-5-veined near the base, apices rounded or acute;
florets 3-4 mm, dorsally compressed;
calluses 0.2-0.3 mm, rounded, hairy, disarticulation scars circular;
lemmas evenly pubescent, margins not overlapping at maturity;
awns 1-2 mm, straight, slightly twisted, caducous, often absent even from immature florets;
paleas equaling or almost equaling the lemma lobes, similar in texture and pubescence to the lemmas;
anthers 0.8-1.8 mm, usually not penicillate;
ovaries with a conelike extension bearing a 2-branched style.
1.5-1.7 mm long, about 0.8 mm thick;
hila linear, about 1/2 as long as the caryopses.
about 1.8 mm long, about 0.9 mm wide;
hila linear, 9/10 as long as to equaling the caryopses.
= 24.
= 22, 24.
Piptatherum miliaceum
Piptatherum pungens
Piptatherum miliaceum is a Eurasian introduction that is now established in several parts of the world. In its native range it grows, often as a common species, primarily in disturbed areas, wadis, and oases, penetrating into the semidesert regions of northern Africa and western Asia. It is used as a fodder plant in northern Africa. Within the Flora region, P. miliaceum is known from Arizona and California, growing in disturbed sites. It has also been found on a ballast dump in Maryland.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Piptatherum pungens grows in sandy to rocky soils and open habitats, from southern Yukon Territory across Canada to the Great Lakes region and eastern Pennsylvania, and, as a disjunct, in the western Great Plains and the southern Rocky Mountains. Its apparent absence from Idaho and Montana, and almost complete absence from Wyoming, is puzzling. The awns of P. pungens fall off so rapidly that it is sometimes mistaken for Milium or Agrostis, but the only perennial species of Milium in the Flora region has leaf blades 8-17 mm wide, and no species of Agrostis has such stiff lemmas and well-developed paleas. Its deciduous, shorter awns distinguish it from P. canadense.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Panicle branches loosely whorled, lower nodes with 3-7 branches, all spikelet-bearing | subsp. miliaceum |
1. Panicle branches densely whorled, lower nodes with 15-30+ branches, some with highly reduced or no spikelets | subsp. thomasii |
CA
MD Biodiversity
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
