Tufted Hair Grass

Deschampsia caespitosa (L.) Beauv. Agrost. 91, 149, 160. 1812
Aira caespitosa L. Sp. PI. 64. 1753.
Aira alpina I.. Sp. PI. 65. 1753. (Type from Europe.)
Agrostis caespitosa Salisb. Prodr. 25. 1796. (Based on Aira caespitosa L.)
Aira ambigua Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 61. 1803. (Type from Canada.)
Aira caespitosa var. ambigua Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 77. 1814. (Based on A. ambigua Michx.)
Deschampsia alpina R. & S. Syst. Veg. 2: 686. 1817. (Based on Aira alpina L.)
Deschampsia brevifolia R. Br. Chlor. Melv. 33. 1823. (Type from Melville Island, Arctic America.)
Aira aristulata Torr. Fl. U. S. 132. 1824. (Type from New York.)
Aira arctica Spreng. Syst. 4^: (Cur. Post.) 32. 1827. (Based on Deschampsia brevifolia R. Br.)
Campella caespitosa Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 122. 1827. (Based on Aira caespitosa L.)
?^>>a I'OT/'ora Steud. Syn. Gram. 222. 1854. (Type from Greenland.)
Aira caespitosa var, arctica Thurber; A. Gray, Proc. Acad. Phila. 1863: 78. 1863. (Based on
Deschampsia brevifolia R. Br.) Podionapus caespitosus Dulac, Fl. Hautes-Pyr. 82. 1867. (Based on Deschampsia caespitosa
Beauv.) Avena caespitosa Kuntze, Taschen-fi. Leipz. 45. 1867. (Based on Aira caespitosa L.) Aira major subsp. caespitosa Syme, Engl. Bot. ed. 3. 11: 64. 1873. (Based on Aira caespitosa L.) Aira caespitosa var. montana Vasey, in Rothr. Bot. Wheeler's Surv. 6: 294. 1878. (Specimens
cited from Utah, Colorado, and Arizona.) Not A. caespitosa var. montana Reichenb. 1850. Deschampsia caespitosa var. maritima Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club IS; 48. 1888. (Type from Vancouver Island, Macoun in 1887.) ^Deschampsia caespitosa var. strictior Kurtz, Bot. Jahrb. 19: 421. 1894. (Type from Alaska,
Krause Bros. 435.) Deschampsia caespitosa var. alpina Vasey; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 368. 1896. (Localities cited,
Alaska and Colorado.) Not D. caespitosa var. alpina Gaudin, 1869. Deschampsia caespitosa var. conjinis Vasey; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 369. 1896. (Type from Southern California, Palmer 231 in 1888.) Deschampsia caespitosa var. longiflora Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 369. 1896. (Type from Vancouver
Island.) Deschampsia brachyphylla Nash, in Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 1: 37. 1900. (Based on D.
brevifolia R. Br.) Not D. brachyphylla Phil. 1896. Deschampsia curtifolia Scribn. Circ. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 30: 7. 1901. (Based on D. brachyphylla
Nash.) Deschampsia arctica Merrill, Rhodora 4: 143. 1902. (Based on Aira arctica Spreng.) Deschampsia alpicola Rydb. Bull. Torrey Club 32: 601. 1905. (Based on D. caespitosa var. alpina
Vasey.) Deschampsia conjinis Rydb. Bull. Torrey Club 36: 533. 1909. (Based on D. caespitosa var. conjinis
Vasey.) Deschampsia pungens Rydb. Bull. Torrey Club 39: 103. 1912. (Type from Banff, AUierta, McCalla
230(1.) Aira curtijolia Rydb. Fl. Rocky Mts. ed. 2. 1 1 12. 1922. (Based on Deschampsia curtijolia Scribn.) Aira alpicola Rydb. Fl. R<x:ky Mts. ed. 2. 1 1 12. 1922. (Based on Deschampsia alpicola Rydb.) Aira pungens Rydb. Fl. Rocky Mis. ed. 2. 1 1 12. 1922. (Based on Deschampsia pungens Rydb.) Perennial; culms in dense tufts, leafy at the base, erect, glabrous, 60-120 cm. tall, or in arctic and alpine regions dwarf; sheaths glabrous; ligules acuminate, mostly 4-7 mm. long, or shorter on the innovations; blades often elongate (short in arctic forms), rather firm, flat or folded or more or less involute, scabrous on the upper surface, 1.5-4 mm. wide; panicle pale to dark-purple, loose, open, nodding, 10-25 cm. long (erect and contracted in arctic forms), the axis and capillary branches scabrous, spikelet-bearing toward the ends; spikelets 4-5 mm. long, the florets distant, the rachilla-joint half as long as the lower floret; glumes 1-nerved or the second obscurely 3-nerved, acute, about as long as the florets; lemmas smooth, the callus-hairs short; awn from near the base of the lemma, from straight and included to curved or somewhat bent and twice as long as the spikelet.
Type locality: Europe.
Distribution: Bogs and wet places, Greenland to Alaska, southward to New Jersey, West Virginia, Illinois, North Dakota, New Mexico, and California; also arctic and temperate regions of the Old World.

Deschampsia mackenzieana Raup, Jour. Arnold Arb 17:205. 1936.
Perennial; culms tufted, erect, glabrous, 30-80 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous, the lower crowded, rather loose and papery, as much as 10-12 cm. long; ligule acute, 3-5 mm. long; blades involute, glabrous, 8-15 cm. long, 1-3 mm. wide; panicle long-exserted, loose, open, 12-30 cm. long, the branches few, capillary, glabrous, 5-8 cm. long, spreading or drooping, naked at the base; spikelets somewhat appressed, 6-7 mm. long, 1-flowered or 2-flowered, the rachilla-joint about half as long as the lower floret; glumes equal, acuminate, the first 1-nerved, the second 3-nerved; lemmas smooth, the summit erose, the callus-hairs and those of the rachilla longer than in D. caespitosa; awn from about one third above the base, nearly straight, exceeding the lemma 2-3 mm.
Type locality: South shore of Lake Athabasca, near Wolverine Point (Raup 6707). Distribution: Sand beaches and dunes, Lake Athabasca, Saskatchewan.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath hairy at summit, throat, or collar, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades glaucous, blue-green, or grey, or with white glands, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fa scicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence lax, widely spreading, branches drooping, pendulous, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Lower panicle branches whorled, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel hairy, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 1 nerved, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex dentate, 3-5 fid, Lemma distinctly awned, m ore than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn subapical or dorsal, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma awn once geniculate, bent once, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs equal to lemma, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.