Culms 40-75 cm; internodes usually puberulent and also pubescent to pilose or appressed-hispid. Cauline sheaths usually puberulent and also pubescent to pilose or appressed-hispid; ligules 2-3 mm; blades usually 4-9 mm wide, more than 10 times longer than wide, stiff, spreading, usually densely appressed-pubescent abaxially, often involute towards the long-acuminate apices. Primary panicles with a few stiff branches; pedicels mostly 5-15 mm. Spikelets usually 3.4-4.2 mm long, 1.7-2 mm wide, ellipsoid to oblong-obovoid, usually sparsely pubescent. Upper glumes often with a faint orange spot at the base.

Dichanthelium oligosanthes subsp. oligosanthes grows in dry, open, sandy, oak or pine woodlands. Its range extends from southern Ontario and New Hampshire to the Texas Gulf coast. It has not yet been reported from Mexico.

Perennial herb, tufted 40 cm - 0.75 m tall

Inflorescence: a terminal, branched arrangement of spikelets (panicle). Primary panicles atop the culms, having a few stiff branches, 5 - 9 cm long, 3 - 6 cm wide, partially enclosed to well-exserted, with six to sixty spikelets. Secondary panicles (when present) atop the branches.

Fruit: a caryopsis, indehiscent, enclosed within the persistent lemma and palea.

Culm: stiffly upright but knee-like basally, often purplish, 40 cm - 0.75 m long, round in cross-section, hollow, minutely hairy and also hairy to softly hairy or appressed-hairy. Nodes sometimes sparsely hairy. Fall phase branching from the mid-culm nodes, rebranching and forming short clumps of leaf blades and small secondary panicles.

Spikelets: 3.5 - 4 mm long, 1.5 - 2 mm wide, ellipsoid or oblong to reverse egg-shaped, sparsely hairy, swollen.

Basal leaves: in a rosette. Blades few, 2 - 6 cm long, egg-shaped to lance-shaped, distinct from stem blades.

Stem leaves: five to seven, alternate, two-ranked. Sheaths not overlapping, minutely hairy and also hairy to softly hairy or appressed-hairy, fringed with hairs. Ligules 2 - 3 mm long, composed of hairs. Blades stiff, spreading, over ten times longer than wide, 4 - 9 mm wide, lance-shaped with a rounded to truncate (cut straight across) base and long-pointed tip, parallel-veined, densely appressed-hairy beneath, fringed with bumpy-based hairs basally, often with rolled-up margins toward the tip.

Glumes:: Lower glumes 1 - 1.5 mm long, pointed at the apex, strongly veined, similar in texture to upper glumes. Upper glumes strongly veined, often with a faint orange spot basally.

Lemmas:: Lower lemmas similar to upper glumes. Upper lemmas longitudinally lined, shiny, with rolled-up margins above.

Paleas:: Lower paleas shorter than lower lemmas, thin. Upper paleas longitudinally lined.

Florets:: Lower florets sterile. Upper florets bisexual, stalkless, with a minute protuberance at the apex, plump. Anthers three. Stigmas red.

Similar species: No information at this time.

Flowering: June to October

Habitat and ecology: Frequent in sandy Black Oak savannas.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Etymology: Dichanthelium comes from the Greek words di, meaning twice, and anth, meaning flowering, referring to plants that may have two flowering periods. Oligosanthes means few-flowered.

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Local in the lake area and reappearing on the low dunes of the southwestern part of the state. It grows in very sandy, dry soils on open, wooded dunes and cleared, open dunes and sand knolls. It is usually associated with Panicum Scribnerianum which is the more common species. These two grasses are closely related and most easily separated in the field. The leaves of this species are narrower and the upper ones are relatively longer and more spreading.