Schizachyrium tenerum |
Schizachyrium scoparium |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
slender bluestem, slender little bluestem |
broom bluestem, little bluestem |
|||||||||
Habit | Plants cespitose. | Plants cespitose or rhizomatous, green to purplish, sometimes glaucous. | ||||||||
Culms | 60-100 cm, sometimes reclining or decumbent, glabrous. |
7-210 cm tall, usually 1-3 mm thick, not rooting or branching at the lower nodes. |
||||||||
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. |
|||||||||
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 | 3-5 mm, glabrous. |
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. |
||||||||
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. |
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. |
||||||||
Pedicellate | spikelets usually as long as or slightly longer than the sessile spikelets, sterile, unawned. |
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. |
||||||||
2n | = 60. |
= 40. |
||||||||
Schizachyrium tenerum |
Schizachyrium scoparium |
|||||||||
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; OK; TX; PR
|
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
|
||||||||
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 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.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 672. | FNA vol. 25, p. 669. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Schizachyrium | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Schizachyrium | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Andropogon tener | Andropogon scoparius | ||||||||
Name authority | Nees | (Michx.) Nash | ||||||||
Web links |
|