Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Hairy dichanthelium

HAIRY DICHANTHELIUM

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Dichanthelium lanuginosum (Elliott ) Gould

[=Dichanthelium acuminatum (Sw. ) Gould & C.A. Clark]

Comanche County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 8-24 inches

Family: Poaceae - Grass Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Also Called:

Woolly rosette grass, hairy rosette grass.

Culms:

Erect or ascending, simple initially, often branching with age, stiff, usually pubescent, olive-green to purplish, nodes bearded with spreading hairs.

Blades:

Firm, erect or ascending, variously pubescent with ascending to spreading hairs or rarely nearly glabrous, olive-green to purplish; stem blades mostly 1.6 to 4 inches long, 1/5 to 1/3 inch wide, those of later branches shorter, narrower, more crowded; rosette blades shorter, broad.

Sheaths:

Shorter than internodes, densely long-hairy.

Ligules:

Conspicuous fringe of hairs 1/12 to 1/5 inch long.

Inflorescences:

Panicle, open, pyramidal to ovate, 1.2 to 4 inches long, nearly as wide, usually purplish; branches ascending or spreading, often long-hairy.

Spikelets:

Solitary, obovoid, to 1/12 inch long, usually pubescent; first glume about 1/3 as long as spikelet, much shorter than second glume, obtuse to acute, glabrous; second glume rounded, 7-veined, pubescent, second glume and sterile lemma nearly equal.

Habitat:

Prairies and open woods; sandy or clayey soils.

Distribution:

East 2/3 of Kansas.

Forage Value:

Little forage value.

Comments:

Secondary panicles are produced until fall.

Hairy dichanthelium