Phleum subulatum (Savi) Asch. & Graebn.

Sinai.

Western and central Europe, Mediterranean region, eastwards to central Asia.

Unconfirmed in Egypt.

Annual.

Phleum subulatum (Savi) Asch. & Graebn. Syn. Mitteleur. Fl. 2 1 :
154. 1899.
Phalaris bulbosa L. Cent. PI. 1: 4. 1755. (Type from "Oriente.") Phalaris subulata Savi, Fl. Pis. 1: 57. 1798.
Phalaris Bellardi Willd. Ges. Nat. Freunde Berlin Neue Schr. 3: 415. 1801. (Type from Europe.) Phalaris tenuis Host, Gram. Austr. 2: 27. 1802. (Type from Europe.) Phleum tenue Schrad. Fl. Germ. 1: 191. 1806. (Based on Phalaris tenuis Host.) Phleum Bellardi [" Bellardii") Willd. Enum. 1: 85. 1809. (Based on Phalaris Bellardi Willd.) Phleum bulbosum K. Richt. PI. Eur. 1: 37. 1890. (Based on Phalaris bulbosa L.) Not Phleum bulbosum Gouan, 1765.
Annual; culms usually numerous, bushy-branched, erect to prostrate, 10-20 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous or scaberulous, the upper often inflated; ligule pointed, as much as 5 mm. long; blades glabrous or nearly so, narrow, gradually sharp-pointed, 3-6 cm. long; panicles narrowly cylindric, 3-8 cm. long, 4-5 mm. wide; spikelets compressed, 2 mm. long; glumes strongly 3-nerved, glabrous, acute; lemma scarcely half as long as the glumes.
Type locality: Italy.
Distribution: Ballast, near Philadelphia, and near Portland, Oregon; Mediterranean region.

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems solitary, 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, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades sca brous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence simple spikes, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence spike linear or cylindric, several times longer than wide, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes awned, awn 1-5 mm or longer, Glumes keeled or w inged, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma 8-15 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.