Flora of North America species comparison

15-120 cm, geniculate;

nodes glabrous or shortly pilose.

glabrous or hispid, margins ciliate;

ligules 1-1.5 mm;

blades 3-33 cm long, 5-20 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose on both surfaces, margins smooth or scabrous;

collars pubescent.

5-15 cm long, 2-8 cm wide, simple, with 5-30 spikelike primary branches in more than 2 ranks;

primary branches 2-10 cm, appressed to divergent, axils glabrous, axes 0.3-0.5 mm wide, triquetrous, scabrous or sparsely pilose;

secondary branches usually present on the lower primary branches, pedicels scabrous and pubescent, shorter than the spikelets.

2-3.4 mm long, 1.2-1.8 mm wide, obovoid, yellowish to reddish-brown or bronze-colored at maturity, mostly paired, in 2-4 rows, appressed to the branches.

scarcely separate, rachilla internodes short, not pronounced;

lower glumes 1-1.5 mm, at least lA as long as the spikelets, glabrous, (1)3-5-veined;

upper glumes (2)2.2-3.1 mm, glabrous, 7-9-veined, cross venation evident throughout;

lower florets usually staminate, sometimes sterile;

lower lemmas 2-3.1 mm, usually glabrous, 7-veined, cross venation evident throughout;

lower paleas present;

upper lemmas 1.8-2.9 mm long, 1.1-1.7 mm wide, apices acute to rounded, mucronate;

anthers 1-1.6 mm.

1-1.7 mm;

hila punctiform.

= 18, 36.