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slender bluestem, slender little bluestem

Habit Plants cespitose.
Culms

60-100 cm, sometimes reclining or decumbent, glabrous.

Pedicels

3-5 mm, glabrous.

Collars

not elongate, about as wide as the blade;

ligules to 0.5 mm, ciliolate;

blades 5-15 cm long, 0.5-2 mm wide, involute or flat, glabrous or sparsely hairy basally, with a wide central zone of bulliform cells evident on the adaxial surfaces as a longitudinal stripe of white, spongy tissue.

Rames

2-6 cm, eventually long-exserted;

internodes 2-4 mm, straight, glabrous.

Sessile

spikelets 3.5-4.5 mm;

calluses 0.5-1 mm, hairs to 1.2 mm;

lower glumes glabrous;

upper lemmas acute, entire;

awns 6-10 mm.

Pedicellate

spikelets usually as long as or slightly longer than the sessile spikelets, sterile, unawned.

2n

= 60.

Schizachyrium tenerum

Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; OK; TX; PR
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Schizachyrium tenerum is an uncommon species in the southeastern United States, where it grows on sandy soils in pine forest openings and coastal prairies. Its range extends through Central America into South America.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 672.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Schizachyrium
Sibling taxa
S. cirratum, S. littorale, S. maritimum, S. niveum, S. rhizomatum, S. sanguineum, S. scoparium, S. spadiceum
Synonyms Andropogon tener
Name authority Nees
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