Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

LONGSPIKE TRIDENS

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Tridens strictus (Nutt. ) Nash

Cherokee County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 20-60 inches

Family: Poaceae -Grass family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Culms:

Stiffly erect, stout, occasionally branched, glabrous, usually in small tufts.

Blades:

Erect or ascending, 2 to 24 inches long, 1/8 to 1/3 inch wide, firm, flat or margins loosely rolled toward upper side, usually glabrous except for prominent hairs near ligule; tip long-tapering to narrow point; midrib whitish, conspicuous on upper surface near base.

Sheaths:

Longer or shorter than internodes, glabrous except for a few hairs on either side of the collar.

Ligules:

Fringe of hairs less than 1/25 inch long.

Inflorescences:

Panicle, elongate, dense, 4 to 12 inches long, 2/5 to 4/5 inch wide, spikelike, more or less interrupted below, narrowed above, pale or purplish; branches erect or flattened against the rachis, the lower .8 to 2.5 inches long, naked below, progressively shorter above.

Spikelets:

Spikelets, short-stalked, 5-11-flowered, oblong, 1/6 to 1/4 inch long, 1/8 to 1/4 inch wide, pale or purplish, florets closely overlapping; glumes nearly equal, 1/6 to 1/4 inch long, exceeding the lowest floret to as long as the spikelet, often twice as long as the adjacent lemmas, 1-nerved, glabrous; tip spreading, long-pointed or irregularly toothed; lemmas oblong, 1/12 to 1/8 inch long, rounded, toothed, membranous, 3-nerved; nerves on lower 1/2 to 2/3 with soft hairs; keel extending beyond tip as minute awn.

Habitat:

Open woods, prairies, pastures, old fields, roadsides; usually in low, moist areas.

Distribution:

Southeast eighth of Kansas.

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Forms tufts.

Longspike tridens inflorescence