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Elymus glaucus - blue wildrye

Scientific Family
Poaceae
Plant type
Grasses
Riparian
No

Grass Description

Origin
Native
Season
Warm

Found in dry to moist soil in canyons, woodlands, and meadows.

Plant Community
Interior Chaparral
Montane Conifer Forest
Pinyon Juniper Woodlands
Low elevation
3000
High elevation
8000
Similar species
Elymus virginicus, Elymus canadensis

General Description

Plants densely to loosely tufted, sometimes weakly rhizomatous, often bluish-green, erect or slightly decumbent; nodes 4 to 7 mostly exposed, usually not hairy.

Perennial plants 1 to 4-1/2 feet, densely to loosely tufted, stems erect or bent at base, sometimes weakly rhizomatous, often blue-green in color; spikes slender; glumes thin; lemmas with awns up to 1-1/4 inches long, often with purple auricles.

Grass type
Perennial bunchgrass
Rhizomes
Yes
Stolons
No
Clump Diameter 2 ft or more
Yes
Bushy - highly branched
No
Height with Seedheads
Greater than 36 inches
Seedhead Structure
Unbranched
Seedhead droops
No
First bloom month
May
Last bloom month
July

Flower Characteristics

Flowers per Spikelet
Multi-flowered
Spikelets One-Sided
No
Awns
Greater than 1 inch
Three Awns
No
Awns bent
No
Flower and Seedhead Notes

Spikes 2 to 8 inches long, to 3/4 inch wide, erect to slightly nodding; 2 spikelets per node; spikelets 1/2 to 1 inch, purplish in higher elevation plants, appressed to slightly divergent with 2 to 4 florets; awns 1/16 to 1-1/4 inches, usually straight.

Vegetative Characteristics

Blade is hairy
No
Blade margins white
No
Blade cross-section
Involute – rolled inward on upper surface

Blades 1/16 to 1 inch wide, usually lax, sometimes slightly rolled inward, surfaces hairless; rigid straight hairs on the veins. Nodes 4 to 7 mostly exposed, usually with hairs.

Sheath is hairy
Yes
Tufts of hair top of sheath or collar
No
Ligule
Hairy
Auricles
Yes

Not available.