Winter bentgrass

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Winter bentgrass

Winter bentgrass habit

Winter bentgrass

Winter bentgrass inflorescence

Winter bentgrass spikelets

Winter bentgrass habit

Winter bentgrass inflorescence

Winter bentgrass habit

Winter bentgrass spikelets

Morphology

Culm

Ascending to stiffly erect, very slender; nodes glabrous.

Blades

Mostly basal, flat or margins often rolled inward at maturity, 1 1/5 to 4 inches long, to 1/10 inch wide, minutely rough.

Sheath

Usually longer than internode, glabrous, margins open.

Ligule

Membranous, 1/12 to 1/6 inch long.

Inflorescence

Panicles, purplish, broadly ovate, 4 to 14 inches long, 1 1/2 to 10 inches wide, open at maturity; primary branches whorled, slender, hairlike, wavy, drooping, re-branching in upper 1/4, no spikelets on lower half; lowest branches 2 to 6 inches long.

Spikelets

Clustered at branch tips on short pedicels, narrowly ovate, to 1/12 inch long, greenish or purplish; 1 floret per spikelet; glumes nearly equal or first glume slightly longer, keeled, glabrous or rough, tips acute or acuminate; lemmas 1/25 to 1/12 inch long, glabrous, awnless.

Ecology

Habitat

Open pastures and prairies, ditches, and roadsides; more abundant in sandy or gravelly soils but may also occur in moist loam soils.

Distribution

East 2/3 of Kansas

Practical Information

Forage Value

Winter bentgrass is a tufted cool season grass with limited forage value.

Additional Notes