FOWL MANNAGRASS
File Size: 155 KB
 
Glyceria striata   (Lam. ) Hitchc.
Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 20-56 inches
Family: Poaceae - Grass Family
Flowering Period:   May, June, July
Culms: Erect to decumbent at base, slender, smooth, firm, tufted, often rooting at lower nodes.
Blades: Erect or ascending, flat or folded, 4 to 16 inches long, 1/8 to 2/5 inch wide, smooth to rough, pale green.
Sheaths: Closed to near summit, rough.
Ligules: Membranous, truncate, less than 1/6 inch long.
Inflorescences: Panicle, open, 4 to 10 inches long, pale green or purplish; branches numerous, slender, wavy, ascending at base, drooping at tip; lacking spikelets on lower 1/3.
Spikelets: Mostly crowded near tips of branches, 3-6-flowered, ovate or oblong, 1/10 to 1/6 inch long; glumes unequal, much shorter than adjoining florets; lemmas blunt, slightly rough, prominently 7-nerved.
Habitat: Stream, pond and lake margins, moist meadows, open marshes, wet woods.
Distribution: Throughout Kansas.
Forage Value: Some forage value but may occasionally contain cyanogenetic compounds.
Comments: The name is in reference to Biblical manna. In Europe, mannagrass refers to several species of grass whose seeds are used to make flour.

Fowl mannagrass inflorescences
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Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas
Fowl mannagrass
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Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas
Fowl mannagrass spikelets
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Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas
Fowl mannagrass ligule
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Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas
Fowl mannagrass spikelets
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Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas
Fowl mannagrass
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Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas
Fowl mannagrass
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Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas
Fowl mannagrass habit
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Anderson County, Kansas
Fowl mannagrass habit
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Anderson County, Kansas
Fowl mannagrass spikelets
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Anderson County, Kansas