HOW TO KNOW THE GRASSES 



TRIBE iX. ORYZEAE 



la. Spikelets with evident "glumes/' about 1/3 as long as the lemma 

 and palea. Fig. 276. 



RICE Oryza sativa L. 



Annual; plants aquatic, stout, 1 — 2 m. tall; 

 panicles drooping, the very flat spikelets hairy, 

 owned or awnless. The structures which look 

 like glumes are really sterile lemmas; the true 

 glumes are the minute ridges which are left be- 

 hind at the summit of the pedicel when the 

 floret drops. Rice is one of the principal food 

 crops of the world but its culture is restricted 

 to moist or irrigated regions with warm tem- 

 perate or tropical climates. In the United States, 

 it is grown only in the lower Mississippi Basin 

 and in Florida and California. 



Figure 276 



lb. Spikelets without evident glumes 2 



2a. Sheaths strongly downwardly scabrous; rhizomes slender, with ex- 

 posed internodes; lower panicle branches whorled. Fig. 277. 

 CUT GRASS Leeisia oryzoides (L.) Sw. 



Perennial; culms up to 1.5 m. long; weak 

 and often sprawling; rhizomes long and 

 slender; leaf sheaths and margins of the 

 blades armed with very sharp minute 

 spines which can scratch severely. The 

 plants are very rough to the touch and 

 cling readily to clothing. The glumes of 

 species of Leersia are the minute cup-like 

 structures from which the floret drops. Cut 

 grass often forms dense "jungles" along 

 streams or around ponds or in marshes. 

 July — October. 



Leersia lenticularis Michx. (CATCHFLY 

 Figure 277 GRASS) is similar, but has broadly oval 



spikelets, 3 — 4 mm. wide and 4 — 5 mm. 

 long, arranged in neat overlapping rows. 



Wet ground and swamps, Mississippi Valley and southeastern states. 



146 



