140 MISC. PUBLICATION 4 2 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



60. HIEROCHLOE. Sweetgrass 



Slender, erect, sweet-smelling perennial, with slender creeping 

 rhizomes, flat leaf blades, and small, open panicles of bronze-colored 

 spikelets; spikelets with 1 terminal fertile floret and 2 stamina te 

 florets, these falling attached to the fertile one; staminate lemmas as 

 long as the glumes, boat-shaped, hispidulous; fertile lemma a little 

 shorter than the others, indurate, awnless. 



1. Hierochloe odorata (L.) Beauv., Ess. Agrost. 62, 164. 1812. 



Holcus odoratus L., Sp. PL 1048. 1753. 



Savastana odorata Scribn., Torrey Bot. Club Mem. 5 : 34. 1894. 



Coconino and Pima Counties, wet places, 7,000 feet or higher, June 

 to July. Labrador to Alaska, south to New Jersey, Oregon, and in 

 the mountains to New Mexico and Arizona; Eurasia. 



Sweetgrass, also known as holy grass, vanillagrass, and senecagrass, 

 is used by the Indians in some parts of the United States for making 

 fragrant baskets. 



61. PHALARIS. Canarygrass 



Annuals or perennials with flat leaf blades and erect, spikelike, 

 sometimes interrupted panicles; spikelets laterally compressed, with 

 one fertile floret and 1 or 2 much-reduced sterile florets below the 

 fertile one; fertile lemma coriaceous, shorter than the glumes. 



The canary seed of commerce is obtained from P. canariensis. A 

 form of P. arundinacea, reed canarygrass (var. picta L.), is cultivated 

 as a garden ornamental under the name ribbongrass. 



Key to the species 



1. Plants perennial with creeping rhizomes; panicle interrupted below, the 



branches spreading in anthesis 1. P. arundinacea. 



1. Plants annual (2). 



2. Glumes broadly winged; panicle ovate or ovate-oblong (3). 



3. Sterile lemma 1 ; fertile lemma 3 mm. long 2. P. minor. 



3. Sterile lemmas 2; fertile lemma 4 to 6 mm. long 3. P. canariensis. 



2. Glumes wingless or nearly so (4; . 



4. Panicles mostly 2 to 6 cm. long, tapering to each end; glumes 5 to 6 mm. 



long 4. P. CAROLINIANA. 



4. Panicles mostly 6 to 15 cm. long, subcylindric; glumes 3.5 to 4 mm. 

 long 5. P. angusta. 



1. Phalaris arundinacea L., Sp. PL 55. 1753. 



Crater Lake, Coconino County, 8,000 feet (McDougal 834). Moist 

 places, New Brunswick to southeastern Alaska, south to North Caro- 

 lina, Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and northeastern 

 California; Eurasia. 



2. Phalaris minor Ketz., Observ. Bot. 3: 8. 1783. 



Tempe, Maricopa County (McLellan and Stitt 765). Introduced in 

 a few scattered localities in the United States, rather common in Cali- 

 fornia; native of the Mediterranean region. 



3. Phalaris canariensis L., Sp. PI. 54. 1753. 



Near Government Hill, Gila County (Forest Service 39185). Waste 

 places, Nova Scotia to Alaska, south to Virginia, Texas, Arizona, and 

 California; introduced from the Mediterranean region. 





