350 GRASSES OF IOWA. 



8. ELYMUS BRACHYSTACHYS. 



Elymus brachvstachys Scribn. and Ball. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agrl. Div. 

 Agros. 24: /. 21. 1900. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Short Spiked Rye Grass. A low but rather stout perennial, with 

 bristly, nodding spikes. Culms i to 4 feet (3-9 dm.) high, erect or some- 

 what geniculate at base, smooth, terete; nodes smooth, sheaths mostly 

 shorter than the internodes, smooth, striate; ligule a short, entire ring, 

 less than \ line (1 mm.) long; leaf-blades 5 to 10 inches (1-2 dm.) long, 

 3 to 5^ lines (6- 11 mm.) wide, acuminate, ascending, semi-involute, 

 smooth or somewhat scabrous below; finely scabrous above and on the 

 margins. Spike rather dense, 4 to 7^ inches (8-15 cm.) long, long-ex- 

 serted on a stout peduncle; rachis thickened, striate, four-angled or more 

 compressed and two-angled, entirely smooth or scabrous on the angles. 



Spikelets glabrous, two at each joint, three to five-flowered; empty 

 glumes flat, scabrous, eight to ten millimeters long or, with the straight 

 scabrous awn, f to 1^ inches (2^-3^ cm.) long, \ inch (1 m.) wide, 

 three or rarely five-nerved ; flowering glumes smooth, or minutely sca- 

 brous, borne on a short stipe, 1 1 to 13 mm. long, five-nerved, the nerves 

 next the keel often shortly excurrent, tipped with a straight or some- 

 times divergent, scabrous awn, 1 to 2 inches (2-4 cm.) in length. Palea 

 about 5 lines ( 10 mm.) long, narrow, tapering to a narrow, truncate, or 

 minutely bidentate point, scabrous on the keels. July-August. See figure 

 249, on page 349. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Iowa. Carroll, Sioux Rapids, Sioux City, Hawarden, Carnarvon, 

 Dakota City (Pammel), 893 Elmore, Minn., Iowa-Minnesota line 

 (Pammel) ; Bartlett 934 (Baldwin) ; Elmore 887 (Pammel) ; Sioux 

 Falls (Crozier) ; Rock Rapids 38 (Shimek). 



North America. Moist, open or somewhat shaded ground, from 

 Michigan and South Dakota, Nebraska (McCook 362, 217 Alma 45, 

 Hastings 186, Pammel), south to Texas (Nealley), New Mexico, Colo- 

 rado (eastern part near Nebraska line, Pammel), and to Mexico. 



9. ELYMUS CANADENSIS. 



Elymus canadensis L. Sp. PI. 83. 1753. Watson and Coulter. Gray. 

 Man. Bot. 673. 1890. (6 ed.) In part. Scribner. Grasses of Tenn. Bull. 

 Univ. Tenn. Agrl. Exp. Sta. 7: 126. /. 183. 1894. In part. Beal. Grasses 

 of N. A. 2: 654. 1896. Nash in Britton and Brown. 111. PI. 1: 231. /. 535. 

 1896. In part. 



Elymus glaucifolius Willd. Enum, 1: 131. 1809. 



Elymus Canadensis var . glaucifolius Torr. Fl. U. S. 1: 137. 1824. 



