No. 48. 

 ERAGROSTIS OXYLEPIS Ton*. (Poa interrupta Nutt.) 



Plant annual or a short-lived perennial, from slightly enlarged base, light 

 green, usually tinged with purple, especially in the inflorescence. 



Roots with abundant coarse root hairs, sometimes branching. 



Culms ascending, prominently geniculate, hollow, not branching, terete, 

 smooth, 1 to 2 feet tall. 



Leaves numerous; from abortive culms, involute, 8 to 12 inches long; of stem 

 2 or 3; sheaths nearly equaling or usually exceeding the lower internodes, smooth, 

 open above but appressed to culm, blade involute with slender rigid point, 3 to 6 

 inches long; ligule a dense tuft of fine hairs 2 lines long. 



Inflorescence an irregular, oblong panicle, of dense clusters of spikelets nearly 

 sessile on the branches, which are short above, the lower sometimes 1 to 3 inches 

 long, erect, and at irregular intervals on the rachis. 



Spikelets oblong-lanceolate, compressed, 2 to 3 lines wide, 7 to 9 lines long, 20- 

 to 30-flowered; internodes of zigzag rachilla \ line long, with minute pubescence at 

 each node; first glume narrowly ovate, acute, carinate, 1-nerved, hispid on the 

 keel, scarcely 1 line long; second glume same as first but \ line longer; floral ghimes 

 ovate, acute, carinate, hispid on keel above, 3-nerved, 1-J to 2 lines long; palet 

 elliptical, cleft at apex, ciliate on the two reflexed arched marginal nerves, 1 to 1\ 

 lines long. 



Grains not abundant, translucent amber color, narrowly conical, nearly £ 

 line long. 



Plate XL VIII, 1; a, empty glumes; b, floral glume dorsal and side views; 

 c, palet. 



Plate XLVIII, 2; another form, with panicle more interrupted and branches 

 longer; a', empty glumes; b', floral glume, dorsal and side views; c', palet. 



Gulf States, Texas, and northward to Kansas. 



