Schizachyrium tenerum |
Schizachyrium sanguineum |
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slender bluestem, slender little bluestem |
crimson bluestem |
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Habit | Plants cespitose. | Plants cespitose. | ||||
Culms | 60-100 cm, sometimes reclining or decumbent, glabrous. |
40-120 cm, erect, not rooting or branching at the lower nodes, glabrous. |
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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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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. |
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Pedicels | 3-5 mm, glabrous. |
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. |
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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. |
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Rames | 2-6 cm, eventually long-exserted; internodes 2-4 mm, straight, glabrous. |
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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. |
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. |
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Pedicellate | spikelets usually as long as or slightly longer than the sessile spikelets, sterile, unawned. |
spikelets 3-5 mm, usually evidently shorter than the sessile spikelets, sterile or staminate, awned, awns 0.3-6 mm. |
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2n | = 60. |
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Schizachyrium tenerum |
Schizachyrium sanguineum |
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Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; OK; TX; PR
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AL; AZ; FL; GA; NM; TX; PR; Virgin Islands |
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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.) |
Schizachyrium sanguineum extends from the southern United States to Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 672. | FNA vol. 25, p. 674. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Andropogon tener | |||||
Name authority | Nees | (Retz.) Alston | ||||
Web links |