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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Slender Wheatgrass
Agropyron trachycaulum (Link) Malte ex H F. Lewis

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Grass (Gramineae)
Flowering: June-August
Field Marks: Most of the spikelets of this species are 3- to 5-flowered. Slender wheatgrass lacks rhizomes, has very short-awned glumes or no glumes at all, and has glumes at least 2/3 as long as the spikelets.
Habitat: Along streams, moist woods, roadside ditches, meadows.
Habit: Perennial herb with fibrous roots.
Stems: Upright, unbranched, hollow, up to 4 feet tall, smooth, although the sheaths may be hairy.
Leaves: Elongated, flat, up to 1/3 inch wide, hairy or at least rough to the touch on the upper surface; ligules extremely short and ciliate.
Flowers: Borne in spikelets on either side of the axis, sometimes overlapping, mostly 3- to 5-flowered, up to 3/4 inch long; glumes pointed at the tip or with a very short awn, the glumes as least 2/3 as long as the spikelets; lemmas up to 1/2 i
Sepals: 0.
Petals: 0.
Stamens: 3.
Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth.
Grains: Oblongoid, usually hairy at the tip.
Notes: This species is a valuable range grass for domesticated livestock. This species is known to hybridize with other grasses so that a lot of intermediate plants may be found.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/2/agrotrac.htm
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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:23:42 EST
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