MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



537 



1. Oryza sativa L. RICE. (Fig. 1131.) Annual, or in tropical 

 regions sometimes perennial; culms erect, 1 to 2 m tall; blades elon- 

 gate; panicle rather dense, drooping, 15 to 40 cm long; spikelets 7 to 

 10 mm long, 3 to 4 mm wide; lemma and palea papillose-roughened 

 and with scattered appressed hairs, the lemma from mucronate to 

 long-awned. o Cultivated in all warm cour; tries at low altitudes 

 where there is sufficient moisture; one of the world's most important 

 food plants; sometimes adventive near the coast from Virginia to 

 Florida and Texas. 



112. LEERSIA Swartz 



(Homalocenchrus Mieg.) 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, strongly compressed laterally, disarticulating 

 from the pedicel; glumes wanting; lemma chartaceous, broad, oblong 



to oval, boat-shaped, usually 5-nerved, 

 the lateral pair of nerves close to the 

 margins, these and the keel often 

 hispid-ciliate, the intermediate nerves 

 sometimes faint; palea as long as the 

 lemma, much narrower, usually 3- 

 nerved, the keel 

 usually hispid- 

 ciliate, the 

 lateral nerves 

 close to the 

 margins, the 

 margins firmly 

 held by the 

 margins of the 



lemma; stamens 6 or fewer. Peren- 

 nials, usually with creeping rhizomes, 

 flat, scabrous blades, and mostly 

 open panicles. Type species, Leersia 

 oryzoides. Named for J. D. Leers. 



Spikelets broadly oval, 3 to 4 mm wide 1. L. LENTICULARIS. 



Spikelets elliptic, not more than 2 mm wide. 



Panicle narrow, the branches ascending or appressed 4. L. HEXANDRA. 



Panicle open, the capillary branches finally spreading. 



Spikelets glabrous, about 2 mm long; culms tufted, erect; rhizomes wanting. 



5. L. MONANDRA. 



Spikelets hispidulous; culms decumbent at base; rhizomes present. 

 Lower panicle branches solitary; spikelets 3 mm long, 1 mm wide. 



3. L. VIRGINICA. 



Lower panicle branches fascicled; spikelets 5 mm long, 1.5 to 2 mm wide. 



2. L. ORYZOIDES. 



1. Leersia lenticularis Michx. CATCHFLY GRASS. (Fig. 1132.) 

 Culms straggling, 1 to 1.5 m tall, with creeping scaly rhizomes ; sheaths 

 scabrous at least toward the summit; blades lax, 1 to 2 cm wide; 

 panicle open, drooping, 10 to 20 cm long, the branches ascending or 

 spreading, naked below, branched above, branchlets bearing closely 

 imbricate spikelets along one side; spikelets pale, broadly oval, very 

 flat, 4 to 5 mm long, sparsely hispidulous, the keels bristly ciliate. 

 Qj. Ditches and swamps, Indiana to Minnesota, south to South 

 Carolina, Florida, and Texas (fig. 1133). 



FIGURE 1133 Distribution of 

 Leersia lenticularis. 



FIGURE 1132. Leersia lenticularis, X 1. 

 (McDonald 68, 111.) 



