Canadian Ricegrass

Oryzopsis canadensis (Poir.) Torr. Fl. N. Y. 2: 433. 1843
S/<pa_;'un<:«a Michx. I'"l. Bor. Am. 1: 54. 1803. (Type from Hudson Bay, Canada, AfiV/iuiix.) Not
.S'. juncea L. 1753. 6'/i7>a canadensis Poir. in Lam. Encyc. 7: 452. 1806. (Based on Stipa juncea Michx. Basis of
Oryzopsis canadensis Torr.) Oryzopsis parviflora Nutt. Jour. Aca<J. Phila. 3: 125. 1823. (Type from Bellows Falls, Vermont.) Urachne canadensis Torr. & Gray, Gram. Cyper. Exsicc. No. 1 14. 1836. Based on Slipa canadensis
Poir. Oryzopsis juncea B.S.P. Prel. Cat. N. Y. 67. 1888. Based on Slipa juncea Michx. Slipa Macounii Scrihn.; Macoun, Cat. Can. PI. 5: 390. 1890. (Type from New Brunswick.) Oryzopsis Macounii Beal. Grasses N. Am. 2: 229. 1896. Ba,scd on Slipa Macounii Scribn.
Culms cespitose, slender, erect, somewhat scaberulous, 30-70 cm. tall; sheaths faintly scaberulous; ligule about 2 mm. long; blades flat or usually involute, scabrous, elongate, less than 2 mm. wide; panicles open, 5-10 cm. long, the slender flexuous branches ascending or spreading, naked below, few-flowered above, the lower 1-3 cm. long, solitary or in pairs; lateral pedicels 2-4 mm. long; glumes acute, pale or purplish, faintly nerved, glabrous, 4-6 mm. long; lemma elliptic, appressed-pubescent, about 3 mm. long ; awn once or obscurely twice-geniculate, 1-2 cm. long, scaberulous, the lower part somewhat twisted.
Type loc.vuty: Hudson Bay, Canada.
Distribution: Woods and thickets. Newfoundland to Alberta, and southward to New Hampshire. New York, northern Michigan, and northern Minnesota.

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, 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 and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence lax, widely spreading, branches drooping, pendulous, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet l ess 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 equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma 3 nerved, 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 1-2 cm long, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma awn twisted, spirally coiled at base, like a corkscrew, Lemma awn twice geniculate, bent twice, Lemma margins inrolled, tightly covering palea and caryopsis, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, de eply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.