MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



219 



or somewhat exceeding them; palea conspicuously silky-villous 

 on the upper half of the keels; grain about 2 mm long. © — 

 Dry sand, New Hampshire to Minnesota and Nebraska, south to 

 Florida and Texas (fig. 427). In autumnal culms the numerous short 

 joints with sheaths swollen at the base, containing cleistogenes, are 

 conspicuous. Plants with awns exceeding the lobes of the lemma 

 have been differentiated as T. intermedia Nash. 



2. Triplasis americana Beau v. (Fig. 426, B.) Perennial; culms 

 slender, tufted, mostly erect, 30 to 60 cm tall; blades flat or subinvolute, 



Figure 427.— Distribution of 

 Triplasis purpurea. 



Figure 428.— Distribution of 

 Triplasis americana. 



mostly 15 to 18 cm long; panicle 2 to 5 cm long, the few slender 

 ascending branches witlTl or 2 spikelets; spikelets mostly 2- or 3- 

 flowered, about 1 cm long; lemmas 5 to 6 mm long, the lobes about 

 half as long as the entire lemma, subulate-pointed, the nerves with a 

 narrow stripe of silky hairs, the awn 5 to 8 mm long, pubescent below; 

 keels of the palea long-villous, the hairs erect. 01 — Dry sand, 

 Coastal Plain, North Carolina to Florida and Mississippi (fig. 428). 



33. ANTHOCHLOA Nees 



Spikelets few-flowered, subsessile, imbricate on a simple axis, the 

 rachilla disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets; 

 glumes (in our species) wanting; lemmas thin-membranaceous, 

 flabelliform, whitish, petallike, many-nerved; palea narrower than the 

 lemma, hyaline. Low annuals or perennials, with soft dense cylindric 

 panicles. Type species, Anthochloa lepidula Nees. Name from 

 Greek anthos, flower, and chloa, grass, alluding to the flowerlike 

 appearance of the inflorescence. 



1. Anthochloa colusana (Davy) Scribn. (Fig. 429.) Annual; 

 culms ascending from a decumbent base, 7 to 30 cm long; leaves 

 overlapping, pale green, scarious between the nerves, loosely folded 

 around the culm, not differentiated into sheath and blade, about 12 

 mm wide at the middle, tapering to each end, 5 to 10 cm long, keeled 

 on the back above, plicate, minutely ciliate, with raised glands on the 

 margins and nerves; panicle pale green, at first partly included, never 

 much exserted, 3 to 7 cm long, 8 to 12 mm wide, the upper part of the 

 axis bearing, instead of spikelets, lanceolate-linear empty bracts 8 

 mm long; spikelets subsessile, usually 5-flowered, 6 to 7 mm long, 

 imbricate; glumes wanting; lemmas flabellate, very broad, many- 

 nerved, 5 mm long, ciliolate-f ringed. © — Known only from "near 

 Princeton, Colusa County, Calif., bordering rain-pools on the hard 

 uncultivated alkali 'goose-lands,' beside the stage road to Norman." 

 Region now in rice culture. 



