Piptochaetium pringlei
Pringle needlegrass, Pringle speargrass, Pringle's spear grass
50-125 cm, mostly glabrous, pubescent below the nodes;
nodes 2-3, dark, 1 glabrous or slightly pubescent.
smooth to scabridulous;
ligules of basal leaves 0.5-2.8 mm, truncate to rounded, of upper leaves 1-3.5 mm, rounded to acute;
blades 10-30 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, 3-5-veined, abaxial surfaces glabrous, smooth, adaxial surfaces smooth or scabrous over the veins, margins smooth or scabrous.
6-20 cm, open, with 10-25 spikelets;
branches ascending, flexuous;
pedicels to 1 mm, flattened, hispid.
subequal, 9-12 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide;
lower glumes 5-7-veined;
upper glumes 7-veined;
florets 6.5-10 mm long, 1.5-2.1 mm thick, terete to somewhat laterally compressed;
calluses 0.6-1.9 mm, blunt to acute, strigose;
lemmas golden brown to dark brown at maturity, shiny or not, smooth to spiny-tuberculate distally or for almost their entire length, pubescent, hairs tawny to golden brown, evenly distributed or somewhat more abundant on the basal 1/2, apices tapering to the crown;
crowns 0.5-0.6 mm, inconspicuous, straight, hairy, hairs 0.5-1 mm;
awns 19-27(35) mm, persistent, twice-geniculate, sometimes inconspicuously so;
paleas 6.3-9.5 mm;
lodicules 2, 1-1.5 mm, acute;
anthers 3.5-5.5 mm, sometimes penicillate.
about 7 mm, fusiform.
= 42.
Piptochaetium pringlei
Piptochaetium pringlei grows in oak woodlands, often on rocky soils, in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is often confused with P. fimbriatum; it differs from that species in having longer florets and sharper calluses.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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