GRAMINEAE 



Annuals or perennials with small spikelets. Species about 80, mostly Ameri- 

 can, from the warmer regions. (Greek spora, seed, and bolos, throwing.) 



Plants annual ; spikelets J /4 line long 1. S. confusus. 



Plants perennial; spikelets 1 line long or more. 



Plants densely cespitose, erect; without rhizomes 2. S. airoides. 



Plants not cespitose, decumbent-spreading; rhi/oines present 3. S. asperifolius. 



1. S. confusus Vasey. Annual ; culms slender, 6 to 8 inches high, often de- 

 pauperate ; blades mostly less than an inch long ; panicles oblong, diffuse, often 

 more than */ the length of the entire plant, the branches capillary, spreading, 

 1 to l l /2 inches long; spikelets Vz to % line long, the glumes about y 2 as long, 

 equal, obtuse, sparsely pilose. 



Open sandy or gravelly, usually moist ground, mostly near streams or lakes in 

 the Sierra Nevada. Washington and Montana to Texas, Mexico and Lower Cali- 

 fornia. Donner Lake, Heller; Mono Lake, Bolander 6096 ; Yosemite Valley, 



Hitchcock 3218. 



Refs. SPOROBOLUS CONFUSUS Vasey, Bull. Torr. Club 15: 293. 1888. Vilfa confusa Fourn. 

 Mex. PI. 2: 101. 1886. Sporobolus ramulosus [Kunth, misapplied by] Thurb. in Wats. Bot. 

 Cal. 2: 269. 1880. 



2. S. airoides Torr. Perennial ; culms densely cespitose, forming large tus- 

 socks, smooth, stout, spreading at base, 1 to 3 feet high; sheaths smooth, 

 sparsely pilose at the throat; blades involute, elongated, the upper short; 

 panicles diffuse, finally about 1/2 the length of the entire plant ; spikelets % to 

 1 line long, obtuse; glumes unequal, the first oval, ^ as long as spikelet, the 

 second as long as spikelet. 



Bottomlands and valleys, often in saline or alkaline soil: Amador Co. (Braun- 

 ton 1229) to Tia Juana (Abrams 3467), east in the Mohave (Newberry, Hall 

 6120) and Colorado (Hall 5885) deserts. Oregon to South Dakota, south into 

 Mexico. 



Eefs. SPOROBOLUS AIROIDES Torr. U. S. Rep. Expl. Miss. Pacif. 7: 21. 1856; Thurb. in 

 Wats. Bot. Cal. 2: 269. 1880; Abrams, Fl. Los Aug. 34. 1904. Agrostis airoides Torr. Ann. 

 Lye. N. Y. 1: 151. 1824. 



3. S. asperifolius Nees & Meyen. Perennial from creeping rhizomes; culms 

 1 to 2 feet long, ascending from a creeping or decumbent base ; sheaths smooth, 

 keeled; blades flat, 1 to 2 inches long, about 1 line wide, scabrous; panicles 

 diffuse, tardily exserted from the uppermost sheath, oval, 4 to 6 inches long; 

 spikelet % line long, the glumes slightly unequal, a little shorter than the 

 spikelet. 



Meadows and wet places, especially in alkaline soil, from Lassen Co. (Davy) 

 to Death Valley (Coville & Funston 246), Riverside (Reed 1950) and northern 

 Ventura Co. (Elmer 3973). British Columbia to North Dakota, south to Texas 

 and Mexico. 



Refs. SPOROBOLUS ASPERIFOLIUS Nees & Meyen, Acta Acad. Leop. Cur. 19: 141. 1843; 

 Thurb. in Wats. Bot. Cal. 2: 269. 1880; Abrams, Fl. Los Ang. 34. 1904. Vilfa asperifolius 

 Nees & Meyen ; Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. Sci. Nat. 4 1 : 95. 1840. 



21. EPICAMPES Presl. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, in elongated, narrow or spike-like panicles. Glumes 2, 

 membranaceous. Lemma 3-uerved, of same texture as glumes and as long or 

 longer, mucronate or short-awned. Palea about as long as lemma. Tall per- 

 ennial bunch-grasses with pale many-flowered panicles and long narrow usu- 

 ally involute blades. Species about 12. southern California to the Andes. 

 (Greek epicampes, curved.) 



