Flora of North America species comparison

25-100 cm, decumbent, rooting at the lower nodes;

nodes glabrous.

5-500 cm, herbaceous, erect, geniculate, or decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes.

glabrous or sparsely pilose;

ligules 0.5-1 mm;

blades 2.5-17.5 cm long, 3-13 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose, bases subcordate, not clasping the stems, margins ciliate basally, with papillose-based hairs.

open;

auricles rarely present;

ligules apparently of hairs, the basal membranous portion inconspicuous;

blades ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, flat.

6-16 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide, with 2-8 spikelike primary branches in 2 ranks;

primary branches 3-8 cm, axils pubescent, axes 1.3-2.5 mm wide, flat, usually glabrous, occasionally pilose dorsally;

secondary branches rarely present;

pedicels shorter than the spikelets, scabrous and sparsely pilose.

terminal or terminal and axillary, usually panicles of spikelike primary branches in 2 or more ranks, rachises not concealed by the spikelets;

primary branches usually alternate or subopposite, spikelike, and 1-sided, less frequently verticillate, axes flat or triquetrous, usually terminating in a well-developed, rudimentary spikelet;

secondary branches present or absent, axes flat or triquetrous;

disarticulation beneath the spikelets.

3.8-5 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, ovoid, bi-convex;

solitary, appressed to the branches, in 2 rows.

solitary, paired, or in triplets, subsessile or pedicellate, divergent or appressed, ovoid to ellipsoid, dorsally compressed, in 1-2(4) rows, with 2 florets, lower or upper glumes adjacent to the branch axes.

scarcely separated;

lower glumes 1.2-1.8 mm, to 1/3 as long as the spikelets, obtuse, glabrous, 5(-7)-veined, not clasping the base of the spikelets;

upper glumes 3.2-4.7 mm, glabrous, 7(-9)-veined;

lower florets sterile;

lower lemmas 3.2-4.7 mm, glabrous, 5-veined;

lower paleas present;

upper lemmas 2.8-3.4 mm long, 1.8-2.3 mm wide, apices incurved, broadly acute to rounded, mucronulate;

anthers about 1 mm.

not saccate basally;

lower glumes usually 1/5 – 2/3 as long as the spikelets, occasionally equaling the upper florets, (0)1-11-veined;

upper glumes 5-13-veined;

lower florets sterile or staminate;

lower lemmas similar to the upper glumes, 5-9-veined;

lower paleas if present, usually hyaline, 2-veined;

upper florets bisexual, sessile, ovoid to ellipsoid, usually plano-convex, usually glabrous, not disarticulating, mucronate or acuminate;

upper lemmas indurate, transversely rugose and verrucose, 5-veined, margins involute, apices round to mucronate, or aristate;

upper palea rugose, shiny or lustrous;

lodicules 2, cuneate, truncate;

anthers 3.

1.5-2.2 mm.

ovoid to elliptic, dorsally compressed;

embryos 1/2 - 3/4 as long as the caryopses;

hila punctate to linear, x = 7, 8, 9, or 10.

= 36.