Culms 30-80 cm, erect, unbranched; nodes prominently bearded, hairs 3-7 mm, spreading, silvery-white. Leaves mostly basal; ligules 1-2.5 mm; blades 5-30 cm long, 2-3(5) mm wide, flat to folded, glabrous or sparsely hispid adaxially, pilose near the throat. Panicles 4-9 cm, oblong to fan-shaped; rachises 1-5 cm, with 2-9 branches; branches 4-8 cm, longer than the rachises, with 1(2) rames; rame internodes with a membranous groove wider than the margins, margins densely white-villous, hairs 5-10 mm, obscuring the sessile spikelets. Sessile spikelets 5.5-8.5 mm, lanceolate; lower glumes densely short-pilose on the lower 1/2, sometimes with a dorsal pit; awns 18-26 mm; anthers 1-1.5 mm. Pedicellate spikelets 3.5-5.5 mm, sterile. 2n = 120.
Bothriochloa springfieldii grows in rocky uplands, ravines, plains, sandy areas, and roadsides, from southern Utah to western Texas and Mexico at 900-2500 m and, as a disjunct, in northwest Louisiana. It differs from B. barbinodis in its less robust habit, narrower blades, longer nodal hairs, and fewer, more hairy panicle branches, and from B. edwardsiana in its pubescent nodes and wider, non-ciliate leaf blades.
Common Name: Springfield's beardgrass
Duration: Perennial
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Graminoid
General: Perennial bunchgrass, culms erect, 30-80 cm tall. Nodes prominently bearded, the hairs 3-7 mm, spreading, silvery-white.
Vegetative: Leaves mostly basal; ligules 1-2.5 mm; blades 5-30 cm long and 2-3 mm wide, flat to folded, glabrous or sparsely hispid adaxially, pilose near the throat.
Inflorescence: Panicles 4-9 cm, oblong to fan-shaped; rachises 1-5 cm, with 2-9 branches; branches 4-8 cm, longer than the rachises, with 1 or occasionally 2 rames; rame internodes with a membranous groove wider than the margins, margins densely white-villous, hairs 5-10 mm, obscuring the sessile spikelets. Sessile spikelets 5-9 mm, lanceolate; lower glumes densely short-pilose on the lower 1/2, sometimes with a dorsal pit; awns 18-26 mm. Pedicellate spikelets 3-6 mm, sterile.
Ecology: Found in rocky uplands, ravines, plains, sandy areas, and roadsides, from 3,000-8,000 ft (914-2438 m); Flowers in summer.
Distribution: s. UT to w. TX and MEX and, as a disjunct, nw. LA
Notes: Bothriochloa is a genus of large perennial grasses with distinctive inflorescences of subdigitate (fingerlike) to racemosely arranged branches. Along the inflorescence branches, spikelets are arranged in pairs, one spikelet sessile, fertile, and usually with a geniculate awn from the lemma, and the other spikelet on a pedicel, somewhat reduced, and sterile or staminate. At maturity, the inflorescence breaks into many pieces, with the disarticulation points being along the rame beneath each sessile spikelet. B. springfieldii is a bunchgrass that is relatively small and delicate compared to other Bothriochloas. It is distinguished by its stem nodes which are densely pubescent with long (5-10 mm) hairs; long awns (2-3 cm); and small (< 9 cm), hairy inflorescences.
Ethnobotany: Unknown
Etymology: Bothriochloa is from the Greek bothros, a pit or hole, and chloe or chloa, grass, alluding to the small pit on the first glume of some species in the genus; springfieldii refers to Wayne Springfield, who collected the type specimen.
Synonyms: Andropogon springfieldii
Editor: AHazelton 2015
