Flora of North America species comparison

8-55 cm, sometimes geniculate and branched basally, usually curving distally;

internodes minutely retrorsely pubescent, mostly solid.

mostly basal;

sheaths compressed-keeled, closed, glabrous, margins scarious;

ligules 1-3.5 mm, membranous, lanceolate;

blades 1-12 cm long, 0.7-2 mm wide, stiff, usually folded, often spirally twisted, midrib well-developed, margins thick and whitish.

5-50 cm, rachises becoming curved;

branches 2-8(16) cm.

terminal, panicles of widely spaced, racemosely arranged, spikelike branches, exceeding the upper leaves;

branches strongly divergent, with distant to slightly imbricate, closely appressed spikelets.

3-5.5 mm, mostly sessile, compressed laterally, with 1 floret;

florets bisexual;

disarticulation at the base of the panicle and above the glumes.

lanceolate, unequal, 1-veined;

lemmas usually exceeding the glumes, 3-veined, unawned or shortly awned;

paleas subequal to the lemmas;

anthers 3;

styles 2.

1.5-3 mm;

upper glumes 1.5-4(5.5) mm;

lemmas 3-5 mm;

anthers 0.7-1.4 mm.

2.5-3.5 mm.

fusiform, x = 10.

= 20, 30.