Pickering's Reed Grass

Calamagrostis pickeringii A. Gray, Man. ed. 2. 547. 1856
Calamagrostis sylvatica var. breviseta A. Gray, Man. 582. 1848. (Type from White Mountains,
N'c-w Hampshire.) Deyeuxia Pickeringii Vasey, Grasses U. S. 28. 1883. (Based on Calamagrostis Pickeringii A. Gray.) Calamagrostis breviseta Scrihn. Mem. Torrey Club 5: 41. 1894. (Based on C. sylvatica var. breviseta
A. Gray.) Calamagrostis breviseta debilis Kearney. Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 11: 25. 1898. (Type from
Newfoundland, Robinson &> Schrenk 205.) Calamagrostis Pickeringii var. debilis Fernald & Wiegand, Rhodora 15: 135. 1913. (Based on
C. breviseta debilis Kearney.)
Culms solitary or few in a tuft, rather rigid, scabrous below the panicle, 30-60 cm. tall, with creeping rhizomes; sheaths glabrous or slightly rough; ligule 2-4 mm. long or shorter on the innovations; blades erect, flat, scabrous, 10-15 cm. long, the basal longer, 4—5 mm. wide; panicle purplish, erect, contracted and rather dense, 7-12 cm. long, the axis scaberulous, the branches short and crowded, 1-2 cm. long, or sometimes in looser panicles, 3-4 cm. long; glumes acute, 4-4.5 mm. long; lemma a little shorter than the glumes, scaberulous, narrowed to an obtuse point, the awn attached about 1 mm. above the base, ah )ut as long as the lemma, slightly bent and protruding somewhat from the side of the glumes; callus-hairs scant, about 0.5 mm. long; rachilla about 1 mm. long, the hairs short, rather scant.
Type locality: White Mountains, New Hampshire (Pickering).
Distribution: Bogs, wet meadows, and sandy beaches, Newfoundland and Labrador to the mountains of Massachusetts and New York; Isle Roy ale, Michigan.

Perennials, Aquatic, leaves emergent, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, 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 blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowe rs 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, 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, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn subapical or dorsal, Lemma awn once geniculate, bent once, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs shorter than lemma, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea shorter than lemma, Palea about equal to 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.