276 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, TJ. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



10 cm long; panicle oval to linear, 1 to 4 cm long, usually rather 

 dense, pale or purplish; pedicels slender, finally disarticulating at 

 base and falling with the spikelet or with the glumes; spikelets about 

 5-flowered, 5 to 6 mm long; glumes about equaling the spikelet, 5- to 

 7-nerved, acute; lemmas about 2 mm long, 9-nerved, the summit 

 hyaline, nerveless, the margin appressed pilose on the lower half, 

 the teeth minute, sometimes with a minute mucro between, the 

 rachilla joints slender, flexuous; palea concave, as broad as the lemma 

 and about as long. © — Open ground in yards, along roadsides, 

 and in dry river beds; introduced in southern Arizona; southern 



Europe to India and South 

 Africa. Locally dominant, an 

 excellent forage grass in winter. 



52. KOELERIA Pers. 



Spikelets 2- to 4-flowered, 

 compressed, the rachilla disar- 

 ticulating above the glumes 

 and between the florets, pro- 

 longed beyond the perfect 

 florets as a slender bristle or 

 bearing a reduced floret at the 

 tip ; glumes usually about equal 

 in length, unlike in shape, the 

 lower narrow, sometimes 

 shorter, 1 -nerved, the upper 

 wider than the lower, broad- 

 ened above the middle, 3- to 

 5-nerved; lemmas somewhat 

 scarious, shining, the lower- 

 most a little longer than the 

 glume, obscurely 5-nerved, 

 acute or short-awned, the awn, 

 if present, borne just below 

 the apex. Slender, low or 

 rather tall annuals or peren- 

 nials, with narrow blades and 



shining spikelike panicles. Type species, Koeleria cristata. Named 



for G. L. Koeler. 



Koeleria cristata is a good forage grass and is a constituent of much 



of the native pasture throughout the Western States. The plants, 



however, are rather scattering. 



Plants perennial 1. K. cristata. 



Plants annual 2. K. phleoides. 



1. Koeleria cristata (L.) Pers. Junegrass. (Fig. 542, A.) Tufted 

 perennial; culms erect, puberulent below the panicle, 30 to 60 cm 

 tall; sheaths, at least the lower, pubescent; blades flat or involute, 

 glabrous or, especially the lower, pubescent, 1 to 3 mm wide ; panicle 

 erect, spikelike, dense (loose in an thesis), often lobed, interrupted, or 

 sometimes branched below, 4 to 15 cm long, tapering at the summit; 

 spikelets mostly 4 to 5 mm long; glumes and lemmas scaberulous, 3 



Figure 541.— Schismus barbatus. Plant, X Vi\ spikelet 

 and florets, X 5. (Peebles and Harrison, 846, Ariz.) 



