Flora of North America species comparison

15-60 cm, erect or spreading, bases bulbous.

15-60 cm.

closed for about 1/4 their length, terete, lowest sheaths with swollen bases;

ligules 1-3 mm, smooth or scabrous, apices obtuse to acute;

blades 1-2.5 mm wide, flat, thin, lax, soon withering.

intravaginal.

3-12 cm, ovoid;

nodes with 2-5 branches;

branches ascending to spreading, terete, usually smooth or sparsely scabrous, infrequently moderately scabrous.

3-5 mm, laterally compressed, usually bulbiferous;

florets 3-7, the basal floret, and sometimes additional florets, normal;

rachilla internodes smooth, glabrous.

bulbiferous;

florets modified into leafy bracts, sometimes the basal florets within a spikelet more or less normal.

keeled, keels scabrous;

lower glumes 3-veined;

upper glumes shorter than or subequal to the lowest lemmas;

calluses webbed or glabrous;

lemmas 3-4 mm, lanceolate, keeled, glabrous or the keels and marginal veins short- to long-villous, intercostal regions glabrous or softly puberulent, apices acute;

paleas scabrous, keels often softly puberulent at midlength;

anthers 1.2-1.5 mm and functional, sometimes aborted late in development, sometimes not developed.

usually sparsely webbed, sometimes glabrous;

lemmas glabrous or softly puberulent over the keel and lateral veins, sometimes between the veins;

anthers in the least deformed florets 1.2-1.5 mm or aborted late in development, absent from modified florets.

= 14, 21, 28, 39, 42, 45.

= 21, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 39, 42+1, 44, 46, 48, 49.