Common Name: slimstem reedgrass

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Graminoid

General: Perennial 35-100 cm tall, smooth, with dense, narrow panicles to 10 cm long; frequents moist meadows.

Vegetative: Leaf blades 13-25 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat or often rolled inward, ascending, light green; stems rarely sterile, 35-90 cm long, usually smooth; sheaths smooth; ligules 1-4 mm long.

Inflorescence: Panicles 8-10 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, dense, sometimes interrupted, purple-tinged; branches erect to strongly ascending, 1.5-4 cm long, with spikelets below midlength; spikelets 2 mm long, 1-flowered, glumes keeled, abruptly acute at apex; callus hairs 1-2 mm long; lemma 2-3 mm long, slightly shorter than the glumes; awns attached to lower portion of hte lemmas, 1-3 mm long, usually straight but sometimes bent; anthers 1 mm, usually fertile with pollen.

Ecology: Found in moist meadows and streambanks, sometimes near sand dunes, infrequently in marshes; usually in fine-textures soils, and often in alkaline to saline substrates, from 3300-10,500 ft. (1000-3200 m) in elevation.

Distribution: Found in all western states except New Mexico and in most northern and northeastern states in the United States.

Notes: Has both sexual and apomictic populations. Subspecies stricta intergrades with subsp. inexpansa but can be distinguished by its shorter spikelets of 2 mm, shorter panicle branches of 1.5-4 cm, and usually smooth stems, whereas subsp. inexpansa has spikelets of 3-4 mm, panicle branches 1.5-9 cm, and usually scabrous stems. Photos are of Calamagrostis stricta.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Calamagrostis is from the Greek kalamos, meaning a reed or stalk, and agrostis, meaning grass; while stricta means upright.

Editor: LKearsley, 2012