Saccharum brevibarbe
Plants rhizomatous. Culms 0.8-2.5 m; nodes glabrous or pubescent. Sheaths not ciliate; auricles absent; ligules 1-2 mm; blades usually 40-60 cm long, 7-25 mm wide, glabrous. Peduncles 45-75 cm, usually glabrous, occasionally pubescent or minutely pilose; panicles 3-10 cm wide, linear or oblong; rachises (10)30-50 cm, glabrous or sparsely pilose; lowest nodes glabrous or sparsely pilose; primary branches 7-14 cm, appressed; rame internodes 4-6 mm, with hairs. Sessile spikelets 6.5-10.5 mm long, 1.2-1.5 mm wide, purple or straw-colored. Callus hairs 3-7 mm, from shorter than to equaling the spikelets, white to straw-colored or brown; lower glumes 5-veined, smooth basally, scabrous distally; lower lemmas 5.5-8 mm, not or indistinctly veined, initially entire, sometimes becoming bifid, teeth 2-2.5 mm; upper lemmas 5.5-8 mm, 0.9-1 times as long as the lower lemmas, 3-veined, entire or bifid; awns 10-22 mm, always flattened below, sometimes spirally coiled; lodicule veins sometimes extending as hairlike projec¬tions; anthers 2. Pedicels 3-4 mm, with hairs. Pedicellate spikelets similar to the sessile spikelets. 2n = 60.
Distribution
Md., Tenn., Okla., Miss., Tex., La., Del., Ala., N.C., S.C., Va., Ark., Ill., Ga., Ky., Fla.
Discussion
Saccharum brevibarbe grows only in the southeastern United States.
Selected References
None.
Key
| 1 | Awns 15-22 mm long, straight or sinuous at the base; upper lemmas of the sessile spikelets entire at maturity | Saccharum brevibarbe var. brevibarbe |
| 1 | Awns 10-18 mm long, spirally coiled at the base, usually with 2-4 coils; upper lemmas of the sessile spikelets bifid at maturity, teeth about 2-2.5 mm long | Saccharum brevibarbe var. contortum |