Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

63. Poaceae, the Grass Family

3. Alopecurus L. -- Foxtail

1. Alopecurus aequalis Sobol. -- Short-awn foxtail

Tufted perennial 2-7 dm tall; culms erect to decumbent, often rooting at the nodes. Leaf blades 1-5 mm wide, finely scabrous above; ligule membranous, rounded to elongate, 2-7 mm long. Spikelike panicle erect, 3-6(8) cm long, 3-6 mm thick. Glumes 2-2.5 mm long, obtuse-tipped, villous on the keel and lateral nerves; lemma about equaling the glumes; awn from back of lemma exserted just barely to 1.5 mm beyond the glume tips; anthers 0.5-1 mm long. Jun--Sep. Shallow water or mud of wet meadows, marshes, water-filled ditches, springs, shores and stream banks; common in the n part, less so s; (Circumboreal, in N.Amer. s to NJ, PA, OH, IL, MO, KS, NM and CA).


Alopecurus aequalis (from Hitchcock 1950).

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