Schizachyrium scoparium |
Schizachyrium scoparium var. stoloniferum |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
broom bluestem, little bluestem |
creeping bluestem |
|||||||||
Habit | Plants cespitose or rhizomatous, green to purplish, sometimes glaucous. | Plants not cespitose, with long, scaly rhizomes. | ||||||||
Culms | 7-210 cm tall, usually 1-3 mm thick, not rooting or branching at the lower nodes. |
58-210 cm. |
||||||||
Sheaths | rounded or keeled, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes glaucous; ligules 0.5-2 mm, collars neither elongate nor narrowed; blades 7-105 cm long, 1.5-9 mm wide, without a longitudinal stripe of white, spongy tissue. |
usually pubescent near the collars; blades 10-39 cm long, 3.5-9 mm wide, pubescent near the collars. |
||||||||
Peduncles | 0.8-10 cm; rames 2.5-8 cm, partially to completely exserted, usually somewhat open; internodes 3-7 mm, usually arcuate at maturity, ciliate on at least the distal 1/2 (sometimes throughout), hairs 1.5-6 mm. |
|||||||||
Pedicels | 3-7.5 mm long, 0.1-0.2 mm wide at the base, flaring above midlength to 0.3-0.5 mm, straight or curving outwards. |
3.5-5 mm, curving out at maturity. |
||||||||
Sessile | spikelets 3-11 mm; calluses 0.5-1(2) mm, hairs 0.3-4 mm; lower glumes glabrous; upper lemmas membranous throughout, cleft to 1/2 their length; awns 2.5-17 mm. |
spikelets 5-10 mm; calluses with hairs to 2.5 mm; awns 6-14 mm. |
||||||||
Pedicellate | spikelets 0.7-10 mm, sometimes shorter than the sessile spikelets, sterile or staminate, unawned or awned, awns to 4 mm, when sterile, the lemma usually absent. |
spikelets 0.75-4 mm, sterile, awned, awns 1-3 mm. |
||||||||
Rames | 2-6.5 cm, with 6-14 spikelets, usually partially to fully exserted; internodes pubescent, hairs to 4.5 mm. |
|||||||||
2n | = 40. |
|||||||||
Schizachyrium scoparium |
Schizachyrium scoparium var. stoloniferum |
|||||||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; HI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NS; ON; QC; SK
|
AL; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC |
||||||||
Discussion | Schizachyrium scoparium is a widespread grassland species extending from Canada to Mexico. It is one of the principal grasses in the tallgrass prairies that used to dominate the central plains of North America. It exhibits considerable variation, much of it clinal. The following varieties are recognized because they are morphologically, ecologically, and geographically distinctive. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Schizachyrium scoparium var. stoloniferum grows in sandy soils of woodland openings and roadsides from southern Alabama and Georgia south to the Everglades. Northern populations consist of widely spaced, weak culms growing in rather bare sand; southern populations consist of dense, vigorous stands with taller, more robust culms growing primarily along roadsides, possibly spread by grading equipment. Some clones, particularly in the south, are largely sterile. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 669. | FNA vol. 25, p. 670. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Schizachyrium | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Schizachyrium > Schizachyrium scoparium | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Andropogon scoparius | |||||||||
Name authority | (Michx.) Nash | (Nash) | ||||||||
Web links |
|