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Foothill Needlegrass

Nassella lepida (Hitchc.) Barkworth

Brief Summary

provided by EOL authors
Nassella lepida is distributed in a portion of southwest North America with populations in California and Baja California, Mexico. It occurs on dry slopes, chaparral and oak woodland savannas at elevations below 550 meters.

Also known by the common name Foothill needlegrass, this perennial typically occurs as a tufted terrestrial plant, whose terete form stems rarely exceed one meter in height.
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Comprehensive Description

provided by North American Flora
Stipa lepida Hitchc. Am. Jour. Bot. 2: 302. 1915
Culms cespitose, often in large bunches, erect or spreading at base, glabrous or scaberulous, or the lower internodes pubescent, the upper ones sometimes puberulent below the nodes; sheaths glabrous, sometimes a little roughened, slightly villous at the throat; ligule very short, less than 1 mm. long; blades flat or soon involute, rather lax, glabrous or scaberulous beneath, pubescent on upper surface, 10-30 cm. long, 1-2 or even as much as 4 mm. wide; panicle open, nodding, 10-20 cm. long, the branches single, in pairs, or in clusters, ascending or more or less spreading, slender, scabrous, naked below (or with some short branches in the cluster), 5-8 cm. long, or sometimes longer, branching about the middle, bearing several or many pale or sometimes purplish spikelets, the branchlets appressed; glumes 6-8 mm. long, equal or the first a little longer, narrow, acuminate, glabrous, 3-nerved; lemma 4.5-5.5 mm. long, the callus less than 1 mm. long, barbed with white hairs, the body tapering from below the middle to the summit, brown at maturity, sparsely villous all over with white hairs or glabrate toward summit, the neck short and obscure, the summit with several short stiff appressed hairs; awn obscurely twice geniculate, scaberulous, very slender, loosely twisted to the second bend, mostly 2.5-3.5 cm. long; anthers tipped with a minute tuft of hairs.
Type locauty: Santa Barbara County. California (Chase 5611).
Distribution: Dry hills, open woods, and rocky slopes, central California to Lower California.
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bibliographic citation
Albert Spear Hitchcock. 1935. (POALES); POACEAE (pars). North American flora. vol 17(6). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
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Physical Description

provided by USDA PLANTS text
Perennials, Terrestrial, not 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 basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, 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 very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, 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, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, 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 glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma rugose, with cross wrinkles, or roughened, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awn 2-4 cm long or longer, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma awn twisted, spirally coiled at base, like a corkscrew, Lemma awn twice geniculate, bent twice, Lemma apices fused distally into a crown, Lemma margins inrolled, tightly covering palea and caryopsis, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs shorter than lemma, Lemma surface pilose, setose or bristly, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea shorter than lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.
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Dr. David Bogler
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USDA PLANTS text

Nassella lepida

provided by wikipedia EN

Nassella lepida (syn. Stipa lepida) is a species of grass known by the common names foothill needlegrass,[1][2] foothills nassella,[3] foothill stipa, small-flowered stipa, small-flowered needlegrass, and smallflower tussockgrass.[4]

Distribution

It is native to California in the United States, where it occurs as far north as Humboldt County,[4] and its range extends into Baja California.[2]

Description

This is a perennial bunchgrass growing up to a meter tall. The flat or rolled leaf blades are up to 23 centimeters long. The panicle is up to 55 centimeters long and has branches bearing up to 6 spikelets each The spikelet has an awn up to 4.6[2] to 5.5[3] centimeters long.

This grass grows in chaparral and grassland habitat.[2] It can also be found in coastal sage scrub and coastal prairie.[4]

This species and several others were recently transferred from genus Stipa into Nassella, mainly on the basis of their "strongly convolute lemmas". Genetic evidence supports the transfer.[3]

This species may hybridize with Nassella pulchra.[3]

References

  1. ^ Nassella lepida. USDA PLANTS Profile.
  2. ^ a b c d Nassella lepida. The Jepson Manual.
  3. ^ a b c d Barkworth, M. Nassella lepida. In: Barkworth et al. (eds.), Grass Manual. Flora of North America.
  4. ^ a b c Calflora. 2013. Nassella lepida. Berkeley, California: The Calflora Database.

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Nassella lepida: Brief Summary

provided by wikipedia EN

Nassella lepida (syn. Stipa lepida) is a species of grass known by the common names foothill needlegrass, foothills nassella, foothill stipa, small-flowered stipa, small-flowered needlegrass, and smallflower tussockgrass.

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