Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

JUNE GRASS

File Size: 149 KB

Koeleria macrantha (Ledeb. ) J.A. Schultes

[=Koeleria pyramidata (Lam. ) Beauv.]

Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 8-24 inches

Family: Poaceae - Grass Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Culms:

Erect, hollow, finely hairy below inflorescences.

Blades:

Mostly basal, flat or rolled inward, 1 to 7 inches long, about 1/10 inch wide, erect or stiffly ascending, glabrous or hairy, finely ribbed beneath, coarsely ribbed above; tips boat-shaped.

Sheaths:

Mostly longer than internodes, distinctly veined, lower portion hairy, collar margins long-hairy.

Ligules:

Membranous, whitish, irregularly notched.

Inflorescences:

Panicles, dense, erect, 1.5 to 6 inches tall, sometimes interrupted, tapered toward tips, minutely hairy; branches spreading or ascending at flowering, contracting later.

Spikelets:

2-4-flowered, flattened laterally, to 1/4 inch long; glumes about equal in length, unlike in shape; lemmas slightly longer than glumes; tips pointed, rarely awned.

Habitat:

Dry upland prairies and open woods.

Distribution:

Throughout except southwest corner of Kansas.

Forage Value:

June grass is a good forage grass but plants usually are scattered, leading to low utilization by livestock.

Comments:

Tufted. June grass varies greatly in size, inflorescence shape, and amount of pubescence. June grass was named for Georg Ludwig Koeler, (1765-1807), a professor in Germany and a student of grasses.

June grass