Nimblewill

Images

Click on image to view full size

Nimblewill

Nimblewill inflorescence

Nimblewill

Nimblewill

Nimblewill ligule

Nimblewill

Nimblewill leaves

Nimblewill

Morphology

Culm

Initially erect, later sprawling, usually rooting at lower nodes, slender, weak, solid, flattened, glabrous, openly branched; flowering branches 4-12 inches tall.

Blades

Flat, 1 to 3.6 inches long, 1/12 to 1/6 inch wide, spreading or ascending, glabrous or minutely rough, usually sparsely hairy near collar, slightly narrowed towards base.

Sheath

Shorter than internodes, keeled, flattened, glabrous or rough, sometimes pubescent on margins at collar.

Ligule

Membranous, very short, fringed.

Inflorescence

Panicles, very slender, linear in outline, mostly terminal, 2 to 8 inches long, 1/16 to 1/5 inch wide, lax, loosely-flowered; base stalked, exserted or included in base of leaf sheath.

Spikelets

Narrow, flattened, lanceolate to oblong-ovate, excluding awn 1/12 to 1/10 inch long; stalk 1/25 to 1/12 inch long, rough; glumes minute, easily overlooked, without veins, less than 1/4 as long as lemma; tip rounded to bluntly pointed, awnless; lemmas lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 1/12 to 1/6 inch long (excluding awn), membranous, 3-nerved, rough, tuft of short hairs at base; tip sharply pointed; awn 1/2 to 1/5 inch long.

Ecology

Habitat

Moist woods and thickets, stream banks, roadsides, pastures, old fields; moist, disturbed shaded sites.

Distribution

East half of Kansas

Additional Notes