Piptochaetium pringlei
Piptochaetium setosum
Pringle needlegrass, Pringle speargrass, Pringle's spear grass
bristly ricegrass, bristly speargrass
50-125 cm, mostly glabrous, pubescent below the nodes;
nodes 2-3, dark, 1 glabrous or slightly pubescent.
20-40 cm, prostrate to ascending;
nodes 2, dark, glabrous.
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.
glabrous, smooth;
ligules 0.5-2.5 mm, obtuse, membranous, glabrous;
blades (3)5-12.5 cm long, 0.8-1.5 mm wide, glabrous or hispidulous, margins scabridulous.
6-20 cm, open, with 10-25 spikelets;
branches ascending, flexuous;
pedicels to 1 mm, flattened, hispid.
3-15 cm long, 2-3 cm wide, with (5)10-30 spikelets;
branches appressed to ascending, glabrous or hispid;
pedicels 2-6 mm, hispidulous.
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.
subequal, 5-7 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, purplish at the base;
lower glumes (3)5(7)-veined;
upper glumes 5(7)-veined;
florets 2.5-3 mm long, 1.2-1.8 mm thick, globose to slightly laterally compressed, gibbous;
calluses 0.2-0.5 mm, obtuse, antrorsely strigose, hairs whitish to golden;
lemmas glabrous, longitudinally striate, constricted below the crown, chestnut brown at maturity;
crowns 0.5-0.8 mm wide, straight, not strongly differentiated, distal margins papillose;
awns 10-16 mm, once- or twice-geniculate;
paleas to 3.2 mm;
anthers about 0.5 mm.
about 7 mm, fusiform.
2-2.5 mm, spherical to ellipsoid.
= 42.
= unknown.
Piptochaetium pringlei
Piptochaetium setosum
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.)
Piptochaetium setosum is native to central Chile. There is an established population in Marin County, California, that grows intermingled with P. stipoides, another South American species. The two species grow in the middle of a dirt track and in the adjacent meadow. The California plants of P. setosum are notable for their prostrate culms. This characteristic was not mentioned by Parodi (1944) or Cialdella and Arriaga (1998).
The origin of the California population is not known. It has been suggested that the seeds might have been brought in by birds, as the area was a bird refuge at one time.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
CA
