Carolina Foxtail

Alopecurus carolinianus Walt. Fl. Carol. 74. 1788
Alopecurus ramosus Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 8: 776. 1808. (Type from Carolina.)
Alopecurus gracilis Willd.; Trin. Mem. Acad. St.-Petersb. VI. 6 1 : 38. 1840. (Type from Carolina.)
Alopecurus Macounii Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club 15: 12. 1888. (Type from Oak Bay, Vancouver
Island, Macoun.) Alopecurus geniculatus var. caespitosus Scribn. in Macoun, Cat. Can. PI. 2 5 : 389. 1890. (Type
from Yale, British Columbia, Macoun.) Alopecurus geniculatus var. ramosus St. John, Rhodora 19: 167. 1917. (Based on .4 . ramosus Poir.)
Annual; culms tufted, much branched at base, erect or more or less spreading, glabrous, 10-50 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous, the upper sometimes a little inflated; ligule mostly 3-4 mm. long; blades flat, scabrous, mostly 2-4 mm. wide; panicles usually more slender than those of A. geniculatus; glumes 2-2.5 mm. long, pale, not purple-tipped; awn of lemma about as in A. geniculatus; anthers 0.5 mm. long.
Type locality: South Carolina.
Distribution: Moist open ground, old fields, and wet places. New Jersey to British Columbia, and southward to Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California.

Annuals, Terrestrial, no t aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, 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 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, 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, 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 below the glumes, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume margins connate at base, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma margins connate below, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awn subapical or dorsal, Lemma awn once geniculate, bent once, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Stamens 3, Styles 1, Styles 2- fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Alopecurus carolinianus is a species of grass known by the common names Carolina foxtail and tufted foxtail.