MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



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the short teeth in a short flat mucro, 

 the margins densely pilose toward the 

 base. Densely tufted perennial with 

 short narrow blades and narrow, 

 simple, few-flowered panicle. Type 

 species, Sieglingia decumbens. Named 

 for Siegling. 



1. Sieglingia decumbens (L.) 

 Bernh. (Fig. 415.) Culms 20 to 50 

 cm. tall, erect, densely tufted; leaves 

 crowded toward the base; blades 5 

 to 15 cm. long or those of the inno- 

 vations elongate, 2 to 3 mm. wide; 

 panicles 2 to 7 cm. long, the short 

 few-flowered branches appressed ; 

 spikelets 8 to 12 mm. long; lemmas 

 5 to 6 mm. long. % — Open woods, 

 Long Beach, Wash.; escaped from 

 cultivation, Berkeley, Calif.; New- 

 foundland and Nova Scotia; Europe. 

 Cleistogamous spikelets sometimes 

 developed in the lower sheaths. 



Figure 414. — Holcus mollis. Plant, 

 floret, X 5. (Tracy 2646, 



X 1 ; glumes and 

 Calif.) 



66. DANTHONIA Lam. and DC. Oatgrass 



Spikelets several-flowered, the rachilla readily disarticulating above the 

 glumes and between the florets; glumes about equal, broad, papery, acute, 

 mostly exceeding the uppermost floret; lemmas rounded on the back, ob- 

 scurely several-nerved, the apex bifid, the lobes acute, usually extending into 

 slender awns, a stout flat, twisted, geniculate awn arising from between the 

 lobes. Tufted low or moderately tall perennials, with few-flowered open or 

 spikelike panicles of rather large spikelets. All our species produce cleistogenes 

 (enlarged fertile, 1- or 2-flowered, cleistogamous spikelets) in the lower sheaths, 

 the culms finally disarticulating at the lower nodes. Type species, Danthonia 

 spicata. Named for Etienne Danthoine. 



The species are found in grassland and contribute somewhat toward the 

 forage value of the range but usually are not abundant. In California D. 

 calif ornica is considered a nutritious grass; D. compressa is important in the 

 mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. 



Lemmas glabrous on the back, pilose on the margin only. 



Panicle narrow, the pedicels appressed 4. D. intermedia. 



Panicle open, the slender pedicels spreading or reflexed. 



Panicle usually of a single spikelet _ _ 7. D. unispicata. 



Panicle of few to several spikelets 6. D. californica. 



Lemmas pilose on the back, sometimes sparsely so. 



Glumes mostly 20 to 22 mm. long 5. D. parryi. 



Glumes 10 to 17 mm. long. 



Sheaths pilose (rarely glabrous); glumes 12 to 17 mm. long. Culms 50 to 100 cm. tall. 



3. D. SERICEA. 

 Sheaths glabrous or nearly so; glumes rarely more than 15 mm. long. 



Panicle simple or nearly so, usually contracted after anthesis ; blades rarely more than 



15 cm. long, commonly less '. - 1. D. spicata. 



Panicle usually compound and somewhat open; blades or some of them more than 

 15 cm., often as much as 25 cm. long_. 2. D. compressa. 



1. Danthonia spicata (L.) Beauv. grass. (Fig. 416.) Culms 20 to 70 

 ex Roem. and Schult. Poverty oat- cm. tall, mostly not more than 50 



