116 



GRASSES OF IOWA. 



Fig 82. Aristida dichotoma. —a, lower 

 or empty glumes of a spikelet ; b, a floret 

 showing awns, middle one coiled. (Div. 

 Agros. «U. S. Dept. Agrl.) 



DESCRIPTION. 



Poverty Grass. A low, 

 much branched annual, 6 to 

 24 inches (1^-6 dm.) high, 

 with few-flowered, spike- 

 like, simple panicles, 1 to 4 

 inches (2-8 cm.) long; li- 

 gule a minute fringe of 

 hairs; leaf-blade very nar- 

 row involute, 1 to 6 inches 

 (2-12 cm.) long. Spikelets 

 erect, 3 to 4 lines (6-8 

 mm.) long; empty glumes 

 nearly equal, linear, the 

 upper often mucronate- 

 pointed, equalling, or more 

 often exceeding, the flower- 

 ing glume ; flowering glume 

 with minute, appressed hairs 

 on the back, three awned, 

 the lateral awns very short 

 and erect, the middle one 

 soon rerlexed and flexuose 

 at the base. Callus hairy. 

 Not widely distributed in 

 this state, chiefly in south- 

 eastern Iowa. August to 

 September. 



distribution. 



Iowa. Muscatine (Reppert). 



North America. ^\tw England, New York, Pennsylvania, New 

 Jersey to Florida; D. C. (Williams) ; Ohio (Sullivant) ; Tennessee 

 (Scribner), Missouri (Eggert). 



2. ARISTIDA BASIRAMEA. 



Aristida basiramea Engelm . Vasey. Bot. Gaz. 9: 76. 1884. Watson 

 and Coulter. Gray Man. Bot. 640. 1890. (6th ed.). Vasey Contr. U. S. 

 Nat. Herb. 3: 44. Nash in Britton and Brown. 111. Fl. 1': 134. /. 299. 

 1896. Scribner. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agrl. Div. Agros. 17: 119. /. £75.1899. 



Aristida basiramea Vasey. Beal. Grasses N. A. 2: 200. 1896. 



