No. 44. 

 DIPLACHNE RIGID A (Munro) Vasey. {Leptochloa rigida Munro, MSS.) 



Plant perennial, from loosely tufted, bulbous base. 



Culms erect, terete, smooth, not branching, 1 to 2 feet tall. 



Leaves; radical and from radical shoots comparatively few, with short, loose, 

 involute, tapering sheaths, and narrow, mostly filiform, involute, rigid, pointed 

 blades, 2 to 6 inches long, pubescent, with few scattered hairs; of stem 2 or 3; 

 sheaths longer than internodes, close, smooth, with blades like those of radical 

 leaves ; ligule a prominent tuft of spreading hairs 1 line long. 



Inflorescence a loose, spreading panicle 6 to 12 inches long; rachis triangular, 

 smooth; branches distant, alternate, spreading or horizontal, triangular, hispid on 

 the angles, with tuft of hairs at the axis, 3 to 6 inches long, bearing 5 to 8 distant, 

 sessile, appressed spikelets. 



Spikelets oblanceolate, 5- to 9-flowered, 3£ to 4i lines long; first glume lanceo- 

 late, acute, carinate, rigid, 1-nerved, hispid on keel, 1-g- lines long; second glume 

 lanceolate, acute, convex, 5-nerved, 2 lines long; floral glumes lanceolate, acute, 

 barely, if at all, mucronate, rigid, 2 lines long, smooth, 2 lateral nerves vanishing 

 before reaching the margin, palet oblong, obtuse, rigid, 2-keeled, ciliate, li lines 

 long, becoming strongly arched. 



Grain oval, reddish brown. 



Plate XLIV; a, spikelet; b, empty glumes; c, floral glumes, dorsal and side 

 view; d, palet. 



Texas and New Mexico, northward to Kansas. 



