Piptochaetium pringlei
Piptochaetium stipoides
Pringle needlegrass, Pringle speargrass, Pringle's spear grass
purple spear grass, stipoid ricegrass
50-125 cm, mostly glabrous, pubescent below the nodes;
nodes 2-3, dark, 1 glabrous or slightly pubescent.
20-60 cm, erect to ascending;
nodes 2-4, 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 or hispidulous towards the collar;
ligules 0.8-2 mm, glabrous, abaxial surfaces scabridulous, margins occasionally ciliate;
blades (5)14-30 cm long, 0.2-0.4 mm wide, linear, glabrous or villous, margins scabridulous.
6-20 cm, open, with 10-25 spikelets;
branches ascending, flexuous;
pedicels to 1 mm, flattened, hispid.
4-15 cm long, 1.5-3 cm wide, with 10-70 spikelets;
branches ascending, scabridulous;
pedicels 1-11 mm, 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.
subequal, 4-8.5 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, purple towards the base, glabrous, 5-veined, apices aristulate;
florets 2.3-4(5) mm long, 0.8-2.3 mm thick, obovoid, globose to laterally compressed;
calluses 0.5-0.6 mm, blunt, hairs white to golden tan;
lemmas shiny, glabrous, striate, dark brown to black at maturity, wholly smooth to conspicuously verrucose or sharply papillose, at least distally, constricted below the crown;
crowns well-developed, 0.6-1.6 mm wide, distal margins slightly to strongly revolute, inner surfaces densely covered with hooks and hairs;
awns 15-25 mm, eccentric, twice-geniculate, tardily deciduous;
paleas 2.5-5 mm;
lodicules 2, linear;
anthers about 0.5 mm.
about 7 mm, fusiform.
1.5-2.5 mm, spherical to ellipsoid.
= 42.
= unknown.
Piptochaetium pringlei
Piptochaetium stipoides
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 stipoides is native to South America. There is one known population in the Flora region, in Marin County, California, which grows with P. setosum in a meadow adjacent to an old dirt road. The origin of the 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.
The Californian plants belong to Piptochaetium stipoides (Trin. & Rupr.) Hack. var. stipoides, which differs from the only other variety recognized by Cialdella and Arriaga (1998), P. stipoides var. echinulatum Parodi, in having lemmas that are mostly smooth as well as a less revolute crown.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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USDA Plants Database
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