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nodding false oat, nodding oatgrass, nodding trisetum

golden oatgrass

Habit Plants perennial, with both fertile and sterile shoots; cespitose, not rhizomatous. Plants annual, without sterile shoots; tufted.
Culms

(30)50-110 cm, clumped, erect, glabrous or pubescent.

7-30 cm, glabrous, erect, spreading, or geniculate.

Sheaths

somewhat inflated, glabrous or villous;

blades to 10 cm long, to 3 mm wide, flat, subglabrous to villous.

Leaves

2-3 per culm;

sheaths scabridulous or pilose;

ligules 1.5-3 mm, truncate, erose to lacerate;

blades (8.5)15-20+ cm long, (3)7-12 mm wide, flat, ascending, lax at maturity, often scabridulous.

Panicles

10-30 cm long, (1)2-9 cm wide, open, nodding, green or tan, occasionally purple-tinged;

branches 2-12+ cm, most, except sometimes the uppermost, spikelet-bearing only towards the apices, with the basal (1/5)1/3-1/2 bare, filiform, flexuous, at least the lowest 1-3 whorls spreading or drooping.

1-5 cm long, 0.5-3 cm wide, pyramidal to ovoid, dense, shiny, yellowish to tan.

Spikelets

6-12 mm, subsessile to pedicellate, pedicels to 2 cm, usually with 2-3 functional florets below 1-2 reduced florets;

rachilla internodes and hairs 1-2.5 mm;

disarticulation above the glumes, beneath the florets.

2.5-3.5 mm, with 2-3 florets.

Glumes

unequal;

lower glumes 0.75-2(3) mm, subulate;

upper glumes 3.5-5 mm long, shorter than the lowest florets, 2-3 times as wide as the lower glumes, widest at or above the middle, ovate or obovate, rounded to the acuminate apices;

callus hairs to 1 mm;

lemmas 5-6 mm, broadly lanceolate, glabrous, bifid, teeth to 1.3 mm, awned, awns (7)9-14 mm, arising from above midlength to just below the teeth, exceeding the lemma apices, arcuate to flexuous;

paleas shorter than the lemmas;

anthers about 1 mm.

unequal;

lower glumes 2-2.5 mm long, narrower than the upper glumes, 1-veined;

upper glumes 2.5-3 mm, 3-veined;

callus hairs 0.3-0.4 mm;

lemmas 1.6-2.7 mm, glabrous or hairy, with wide hyaline margins, apices bifid, teeth to about 0.5 mm, awned, awns 2-6 mm, arising from above midlength and exceeding the apices, slightly bent;

anthers 1-1.5 mm.

Caryopses

2.5-3.2 mm, densely to sparsely pubescent.

2n

= 42.

= unknown.

Trisetum cernuum

Trisetum aureum

Distribution
from USDA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
NJ
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Trisetum cernuum grows in moist woods, on stream banks, lake and pond shores, and floodplains of the western Flora region. The hairiness of the leaf sheaths varies, often within a plant.

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

Trisetum aureum is native to the Mediterranean region. It was collected from a ballast dump in Camden, New Jersey, in 1896 (Hitchcock 1951), and has not been reported since from the Flora region.

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

Source FNA vol. 24, p. 748. FNA vol. 24, p. 753.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Trisetum Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Trisetum
Sibling taxa
T. aureum, T. canescens, T. flavescens, T. interruptum, T. melicoides, T. orthochaetum, T. sibiricum, T. spicatum, T. wolfii
T. canescens, T. cernuum, T. flavescens, T. interruptum, T. melicoides, T. orthochaetum, T. sibiricum, T. spicatum, T. wolfii
Synonyms T. nutkanense
Name authority Trin. (Ten.) Ten.
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