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Anatherum virginicum

(L.) Spreng. (1815)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Monocots Order: Poales Family: Poaceae Genus: Anatherum

broomsedge, yellow bluestem

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Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Cespitose perennials growing in dense tufts, yellowish at base.

Stems: Culms erect, 50–100 cm tall, branching freely from the middle and upper nodes, internodes compressed, up to 4 mm in diameter, hollow but partially pithy, glabrous.

Roots: Fibrous root system.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate, primarily basal. Blades up to 35 cm long, basal blades longest, 2–5 mm wide, hirsute near base and on margins of lower surface, lower surface strongly keeled. Surfaces smooth and glabrous or sparsely to densely pubescent with spreading hairs. Margins entire. Sheaths closely overlapping, strongly keeled, margins hirsute; ligule a ciliolate membrane, 0.5–0.7 mm long. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescence branches several from each of the middle and upper nodes, slender and wiry, erect or ascending, each bearing several peduncles that arise in the axils of bladeless spathes, peduncles less than 10 mm long, rachis internodes 1.5–3 mm long, pedicels 3.1–5 mm long, rachis internodes and pedicels densely ciliate with silky hairs these up to 8 mm long. Sessile spikelets narrowly ovate,3.8–4.1 mm long, acute, pedicellate spikelets rudimentary or absent; first glume flattened, the 2 lateral keels scabrous-ciliate near apex, margins inflexed and covering edges of second glume, the second glume 3.5–3.6 mm long, keeled, 1–nerved; first (sterile) lemma hyaline, 3–3.5 mm long, conforming in shape to first glume, upper (fertile) lemma hyaline, narrow, 2.5–3 mm long, ciliate, apex awned, the awn 11–17 mm long, twisted near base. Stamen 1. Ovary superior.

Fruit: Caryopsis brown; ovoid; 1.9–2.4 mm long.

Ploidy: 2n = 20

Habitat: Common and often dominant along roadsides and in disturbed dry to mesic forest and shrubland; especially on ridges.

Elevation Range: 50–1,200 m.

Historical Distribution

Images

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Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Statewide Status

Naturalized

Island Status

Kaua'i Naturalized
O'ahu Naturalized
Molokai Naturalized
Lana'i Potentially naturalizing
Maui Naturalized
Hawai'i Naturalized

Dispersal Agents

Water/Ocean
Wind
Other Animals

Pollinators

Bibliography

Name Published In: Pl. Min. Cogn. Pug. 2: 16 (1815)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:1497 (O, H [as Andropogon virginicus]); Hughes 1995:8 (Mo); Oppenheimer et al. 1999:9 (WM); Herbarium Pacificum Staff 1999:7 (L); Imada et al. 2000:14 (K); Starr et al. 2002:22 (Mi); Snow & Lau 2010:48 (add var. virginicus to selected K & O spms., remove Mi [re-IDed as A. glomeratus var. pumilus], remove L [re-IDed as Hyparrhenia hirta], KEY); Faccenda 2022:43 (add var. virginicus); Faccenda 2023c:138 (KEY); Vorontsova et al. 2023:13 (Syn. Andropogon virginicus = Anatherum virginicum); Faccenda & Sprague 2024:145 (L [as A. virginicus var. virginicus])

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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