Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

63. Poaceae, the Grass Family

3. Alopecurus L. -- Foxtail

3. Alopecurus carolinianus Walt. -- Carolina foxtail

Tufted annual (0.5)1-2.5 dm tall; culms erect to decumbent. Leaf blades 1-3 mm wide, finely scabrous above; ligule membranous, rounded to elongate, 1-5 mm long. Spikelike panicle erect, 1-5 cm long, 3-5 mm thick. Glumes 1.5-2.8 mm long, obtuse-tipped, villous on the keel and lateral nerves; lemma about equaling the glumes; awn from back of lemma exserted 2-4 mm beyond the glume tips, geniculate; anthers ca. 0.5 mm long. Late May--Aug. Mud flats or wet ground of temporary ponds, wet meadows and low prairie; uncommon and scattered; (MA to B.C., s to FL, LA, TX, AZ and CA).


Alopecurus carolinianus (from Hitchcock 1950).

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