Flora of the Palouse Region 23 



erect: flowering glume 6-7 mm. long, tipped with a long geniculate awn, 

 which is twisted below. Sparingly escaped from cultivation. 



38. DANTHONIA. 



Inflorescence a contracted or open panicle: spikelets 3-many- 

 Howered, the flowers all perfect or the upper staminate; rachilla 

 pubescent, extending beyond the flowers: empty glumes keeled, 

 acute, subequal, persistent, generally extending beyond the upper- 

 most flowering one: flowering glumes rounded on the back, 2- 

 toothed, deciduous, the bent awn flat and twisted at the base, 

 arising from between the acute or awned teeth; palet hyaline, 2- 

 keeled near the margins, obtuse or 2-toothed: grain free, enclosed 

 in the flowering glume. 



vSpikelets racemose: leaves smooth. D. californica. 



Spikelets mostly solitary: leaves hairy. D. UNISPICATA. 



D. californica Bolaud. Erect, .5-1 m. tall: leaf blades flat, scabrous; 

 sheaths loose, shortly retrorse pubescent, with a tuft of hairs at the tbroat: 

 spikelets 1-2 cm. long, 3-5 in a raceme, rarely more numerous or even soli- 

 tan-, usually long-pedicelled: flowering glume long-ciliate below the middle, 

 two cleft at apex, bearing an awn of about equal length. Common in low 

 places. 



D. Ullispicata Munro. Closely resembling D. californica but not so large, 

 15-30 cm. tall: leaf blades sparsely hairy, the sheaths villose with long white 

 hairs: spikelets small, solitary. In dry soils, rare. 



39. SPARTINA. 



Inflorescence of one-sided spreading or erect alternate spikes: 

 spikelets 1 -flowered, narrow, deciduous, borne in two rows on the 

 rachis, articulated with the very short pedicels below the glumes: 

 empty glumes keeled, very unequal: flowering glume keeled, 

 equalling or shorter than the second empty glume: palet often 

 longer than its glume: grain free. 



S. cynosuroides Willd. Culms 1-2 m. tall, simple, smooth: leaf blades 

 flat, keeled, long-acuminate, involute in age, scabrous on the margins: spikes 

 5-20, 5-12 cm. long, ascending, sometimes peduncled: spikelets closely im- 

 bricated: empty glumes very scabrous on the keels, awn-pointed: flowering 

 glume scabrous on the midrib, which terminates below the 2-toothed apex. 

 Rocky banks of Snake River at Almota. 



40. BECKMANNIA. 



Inflorescence a terminal panicle of erect spikes: spikelets 1-2- 

 flowered, globose/compressed: empty glumes membranous, saccate, 

 obtuse or abruptly acute: flowering glumes 1 or 2, narrow, thin- 

 membranous; palet hyaline: grain oblong, free, enclosed in the 

 flowering glume and palet. 



