Tridens strictus

(Nutt.) Nash
Common names: Longspike tridens
Endemic
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 25. Treatment on page 34.

Plants with hard, knotty, shortly rhizomatous bases. Culms 50-170 cm, stiffly erect. Sheaths rounded, glabrous except for a few hairs on either side of the collar; ligules about 0.5 mm, membranous, ciliate; blades 2-8 mm wide, flat or loosely infolded, glabrous, tapering to the apices. Panicles 10-30(36) cm long, 1-2 cm wide; branches to 6 cm, erect or appressed; pedicels 1-1.5 mm, glabrous. Spikelets 4-7 mm, with 5-11 florets. Glumes 4-7 mm, always conspicuously exceed¬ing and often twice as long as the adjacent lemmas, usually equaling or exceeding the distal florets, glabrous, 1-veined, tapering to acuminate apices; calluses pilose; lemmas (2)3-3.5 mm, veins pilose to well above midlength, lateral veins often excurrent; paleas 2-3 mm, bases not bowed-out; anthers 1-1.5 mm. Caryopses 1-1.5 mm. 2n = 40.

Distribution

Pa., Kans., Okla., Miss., Tex., La., Mo., Ala., Tenn., N.C., S.C., Va., Ark., Ill., Ga., Ky., Fla.

Discussion

Tridens strictus grows in open woods, old fields, right of ways, and coastal grasslands. It is endemic to the United States.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.