Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

JOINTED GOATGRASS

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Aegilops cylindrica Host

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 8-30 inches

Family: Poaceae - Grass Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Culms:

Erect or bent abruptly at base, hollow, branching at base, glabrous or pubescent.

Blades:

Flat, 1 to 5 inches long, less than 1/6 inch wide, rough, glabrous or pubescent.

Sheaths:

Open, shorter than internodes, glabrous or fringed on margins to sparsely soft-hairy; auricles inconspicuous.

Ligules:

Membranous, very short.

Inflorescences:

Spike, 3 to 6 inches long, up to 1/5 inch thick, cylinder-like (round in cross-section); spikelets 5 to 10.

Spikelets:

Oblong-cylindric, borne singly, pressed flat against rachis, 2- to 5-flowered; glumes hard, asymmetrical, prominently many-nerved, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, first glume shorter than second; glumes and lemmas awned, awns on uppermost spikelets 1 to 3 inches long, awns shorter on lower spikelets.

Habitat:

Waste areas, disturbed sites, roadsides, and fields.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Origin:

This weedy species was introduced from Eurasia and is now widespread in the United States. It is thought to have been introduced via contaminated wheat.

Comments:

In the vegetative stage, jointed goatgrass is difficult to distinguish from wheat.

Jointed goatgrass