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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Short-awn Foxtail
Alopecurus acqualis Sobol.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Grass (Gramineae)
Flowering: June-August
Field Marks: The single spikes of this grass are cylindrical and several times longer than broad. The spike is not "fuzzy." The awn of the lemma is only about 1/3 inch long.
Habitat: Wet meadows, marshes, along streams, around ponds and lakes.
Habit: Perennial herb with fibrous roots.
Stems: Spreading to ascending, often rooting at the nodes, up to 1 1/2 feet tall, smooth.
Leaves: Elongated, up to 1/6 inch wide, without hairs but usually rough to the touch on both surfaces; ligules up to 1/3 inch long.
Flowers: Borne in spikelets, with several spikelets crowded into a long cylindrical spike at the tip of the stem, spikes up to 3 inches long, up to 1/4 inch wide; spikelets 1-flowered; glumes sparsely hairy: lemmas smooth, with an awn arising fr
Sepals: 0.
Petals: 0.
Stamens: 3.
Pistils: Ovary superior.
Grains: Ellipsoid, smooth.
Notes: This grass is foraged by domesticated livestock.

Previous Species -- Slender Wheatgrass (Agropyron trachycaulum)
Return to Species List -- Group 2
Next Species -- Mountain Foxtail (Alopecurus alpinus )

U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/2/alopaequ.htm
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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:23:43 EST
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