Schizachyrium sanguineum |
Schizachyrium littorale |
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crimson bluestem |
dune bluestem, shore bluestem, shore little bluestem |
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Habit | Plants cespitose. | Plants cespitose, sometimes appearing rhizomatous, glaucous. | ||||
Culms | 40-120 cm, erect, not rooting or branching at the lower nodes, glabrous. |
39-160 cm, branching at the lower nodes, often rooting from nodes in contact with the soil; lower internodes usually shortened and compressed. |
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Sheaths | glabrous, rounded; ligules 0.7-2 mm; blades 7-20 cm long, 1-6 mm wide, usually with long, papillose-based hairs basally, glabrous elsewhere, sometimes scabrous, without a longitudinal stripe of white, spongy tissue. |
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Leaves | glaucous; collars usually constricted, elongate; auricles flexible, yellow; ligules 1.5-2 mm; blades 10-30 cm long, 3.5-6.5 mm wide, without a longitudinal stripe of white, spongy tissue. |
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Peduncles | 4-6 cm; rames 4-15 cm, not open, usually almost fully exserted at maturity; internodes 4-6 mm, straight, from mostly glabrous with a tuft of hairs at the base to densely hirsute all over. |
0.5-5 mm; rames 3-9 cm, with 13-19 spikelets, arcuate at maturity; internodes 4-6 mm, densely villous, hairs 3-7.5 mm. |
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Pedicels | 3-6 mm long, 0.3-0.5 mm wide at the base, gradually widening to about 0.6-0.8 mm at the top, straight. |
5-7 mm, hairy distally, hairs 5-7 mm. |
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Sessile | spikelets 5-9 mm; calluses 0.5-1 mm, hairs to 2 mm; lower glumes glabrous or densely pubescent; upper lemmas cleft for (2/3)3/4-7/8 of their length; awns 15-25 mm. |
spikelets 6-10 mm; calluses 0.2-0.5 mm, glabrous; lower glumes glabrous; awns 9-20 mm. |
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Pedicellate | spikelets 3-5 mm, usually evidently shorter than the sessile spikelets, sterile or staminate, awned, awns 0.3-6 mm. |
spikelets 1.5-5 mm, often staminate, unawned or awned, awns to 3.5 mm. |
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2n | = 40. |
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Schizachyrium sanguineum |
Schizachyrium littorale |
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Distribution |
AL; AZ; FL; GA; NM; TX; PR; Virgin Islands |
AL; CT; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; LA; MA; MD; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; PA; TX; VA |
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Discussion | Schizachyrium sanguineum extends from the southern United States to Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Schizachyrium littorale is restricted to shifting, coastal sand dunes of the Gulf, Atlantic, and Great Lakes coasts of the United States. It often appears rhizomatous because the lower nodes are frequently covered by sand. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 674. | FNA vol. 25, p. 672. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | S. scoparium var. littorale, S. scoparium subsp. littorale, Andropogon scoparius var. littoralis, Andropogon scoparius var. ducis | |||||
Name authority | (Retz.) Alston | (Nash) E.P. Bicknell | ||||
Web links |