Flora of North America species comparison

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Triplasis purpurea

purple sandgrass, sand grass
Habit Plants annual and tufted or perennial and occasionally rhizomatous.
Culms

14-100 cm, usually ascending;

internodes glabrous.
Panicles

3-7 cm long, 1-6 cm wide.
Spikelets

6.5-9 mm, with 3-4 florets.
Glumes

about 2 mm, glabrous or scabrous, apices erose;

lemmas 3-4 mm, lobes shorter than 1 mm, rounded;

awns shorter than 2 mm, straight;

paleas about 2.5 mm, keels ciliate;

anthers about 2 mm, reddish-purple.
Caryopses

about 2 mm long, 0.6 mm wide, tapering distally, tan.
Ligules

to 1 mm, of hairs;

blades 1-5 mm wide, flat or involute, hispid or with papillose-based hairs.
2n

= 40.

Triplasis purpurea
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CO; CT; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MS; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; WI; ON
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Discussion

Triplasis purpurea grows in sandy soils throughout the eastern and central portion of the Flora region, extending southward through Mexico to Costa Rica. It is far more common in maritime dunes than T. americana. Plants in the Flora region belong to Triplasis purpurea (Walter) Chapm. var. purpurea.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 42.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Chloridoideae > tribe Cynodonteae > Triplasis
Sibling taxa
T. americana
Name authority (Walter) Chapm.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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