GRASSES OF OHIO 
287 
Tribe, Aveneae. Oats Tribe. 
Grasses zvith laterally eompressed, 2-several-flowered spikelets, 
usually jointed above the empty glumes and arranged in panieles; empty 
glumes usually longer than the dovuering glumes; one or more of the 
palets usually azvned on the baek or from betzveen the 2-toothed apex. 
15. Danthonia DC. Wild-oat-grass. 
Mostly erect perennials with narrow leaves and small terminal 
contracted or open panicles. Spikelets 3-many-tlowered, the upper¬ 
most staminate or vestigial; rachilla pubescent, extending beyond 
the dowers; empty glumes keeled, acute, subequal, much longer than 
the lemmas, usually exceeding the uppermost dower; lemmas 
rounded on the back, 2-toothed, with a dat, twisted and bent awn 
between the teeth; palet hyaline, 2-keeled ; grain free. 
1. Teeth of the lemma triangular, not awn-pointed; leaves of the stem short. 
D. spicata. 
1. Teeth of the lemma aristate; leaves of the stem elongated. D. compressa. 
1. Danthonia spicata (L.) Beauv. Common Wild-oat-grass. A 
grass with terete stems, 1-2^ ft. high, with involute leaves, and with 
a few-dowered panicle, often reduced to a raceme, the few short 
branches erect or ascending. Spikelets 5-8-dowered, on short stiff 
pedicels; lemma sparsely clothed with stiff hairs, broadly oblong, 
its teeth triangular, the bent awn longer than the body of the lemma. 
In dry or rocky soil. June-August. General. 
2. Danthonia compressa Aust. Flattened Wild-oat-grass. A 
grass with simple, erect, slender, dattened stems, often decumbent 
at the base, lJ^-3 ft. high, and an open panicle the lower branches 
generally spreading. Spikelets 5-10-dowered; lemma oblong, with 
aristate teeth, a ring of short hairs at the base, and an erect or some¬ 
what bent and twisted awn. 
In dry woods. July-September. Portage County. 
16. Arrhenatherum Beauv. Oat-grass. 
Tall perennials with dat leaf-blades and long narrow panicles. 
Spikelets 2-dowered, the lower staminate, the upper bisporangiate, 
rachilla extending beyond the dowers; empty glumes thin-mem¬ 
branous, keeled, acute, unequal; lemmas rigid, 5-7-nerved, the first 
bearing a long bent, twisted, dorsal awn arising below the middle, 
the second unawned; palet hyaline, 2-keeled ; grain free, ovoid. 
1. Arrhenatherum elatius (L.) Beauv. Oat-grass. A grass 
with a simple erect stem, 2-4 ft. high, and a narrow, shining, pale or 
