Tridens flavus
Plants with firm, knotty, shortly rhizomatous bases. Culms 60-180 cm. Sheaths keeled, mostly glabrous, collars pubescent; ligules to 0.5 mm, membranous, ciliate; blades 3-10 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely hispid, apices attenuate and involute. Panicles 15-40 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, erect or nodding; branches 10-15(25) cm, strongly divergent to drooping, stiff or lax, lower branches naked for 1/3 – 1/2 of their length; pedicels 3-8 mm. Spikelets 5-10 mm long, with 4-8 florets. Lower glumes 2.5-3 mm, often mucronate; upper glumes 3.5-4 mm; lemmas 3-5 mm, lateral veins puberulent or ciliate to well above midlength, midveins and lateral veins usually excurrent, midveins extending to 0.5 mm, lateral vein extensions shorter; paleas as long as the lemmas, widened below; anthers 1-1.5 mm. Caryopses 1.8-2 mm. 2n = 40.
Distribution
Conn., N.J., N.Y., D.C., Del., Ill., Ind., Kans., Mich., Minn., Nebr., N.Mex., Ohio, Okla., Wis., W.Va., Ont., Fla., N.H., Tenn., Tex., La., N.C., S.C., Pa., Va., Md., Mass., R.I., Vt., Calif., Ala., Ark., Ga., Iowa, Mo., Miss., Ky.
Discussion
Selected References
None.
Key
| 1 | Panicles nodding; pulvini inconspicuously or conspicuously hairy, the hairs confined to the adaxial side of the branches | Tridens flavus var. flavus |
| 1 | Panicles erect throughout; pulvini always conspicuously hairy, the hairs extending around the base of the branches | Tridens flavus var. chapmanii |