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Plant - summer
Sue Smith | Basal leaves
Sue Smith | Blade tip
Sue Smith | Ligule and involute blade
Sue Smith | Seedhead
Sue Smith | Spikelets
Sue Smith | Hairy sheath apex
Sue Smith | | | | |
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Origin: Introduced Season: Warm
Habitat Description: Grows on rocky slopes, at the margins of woods, along roadsides, and in waste ground.
Plant Communities: Montane Conifer Forest, Disturbed Areas
Elevation: 6000 - 8000 feet
Desc: A vigorous-growing bunchgrass with abundant leaves coming from a coarse, dense, basal crown, 2 to 5 feet tall with droopy seedheads. This grass can outcompete natives and become a monoculture.
Identification notes: Perennial; seedhead is lead-colored, branches slender, drooping; lemmas less than 1/16 inch, lateral nerves prominent. Blades taper to fine hair-like brownish threads. Collar hairy.
Grass Type: Perennial bunchgrass Rhizomes: N Stolons: N
Large Dense Clump (> 2 feet): Y Bushy (highly branched): N
Height with Seedheads: Greater than 36 inches
Seedhead Structure: Branched - open and spreading Seedhead Droops: Y
Flowering Period: Jun - Aug
Number of Flowers per Spikelet: Multi-flowered Spikelets One-sided: N
Awns: Absent Three Awns: N Awns Bent: N
Flower and Seedhead Notes: Seedhead is 10 to 16 inches long, branches 3 to 6 inches long. Branches not bearing spikelets near the bases. Lower axils of the seedhead stem are hairy. Stems of spikelets much shorter than spikelets. Lemma 3-nerved, lateral nerve may be inconspicuous.
Blade Hairy: Y Blade with White Margin: N Blade Cross Section: Involute
Blade Notes: Blades 24 to 48 inches long, drooping, slender, tapering to fine hair-like brownish threads. Bases of the densely clustered young leaves are purplish.
Sheath Hairy: Y Tuft of Hairs Top of Sheath or Collar: Y Ligules: Hairy
Auricles (Ear-like lobes at base of blades): N
Vegetative Notes: Sheaths shorter than internodes, basal ones densely hairy with long, soft hairs on the back and near the base, upper ones are smooth without hairs, except top (collar) where they are soft-hairy at the margins. Ligule a dense row of white hairs < 1/6 inch.
Forage Value: Fair.
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