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Sweet Wood Reed

Cinna arundinacea L.

Comprehensive Description

provided by North American Flora
Cinna arundinacea L. Sp. PI. 5. 1753
Agrostis Cinna Retz. Obs. 5: 18. 1789. (Based on Cinna arundinacea L.) Agroslis Cinna Lam. Tab. Encyc. 1: 162. 1791. (Based on Cinna arundinacea L.) Agrostis Cinna Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 1 : 64. * 1814. (Based on Cinna arundinacea Willd., error for L.) Muhlenbergia Cinna Trin. Gram. Unifl. 191. 1824. (Based on Agrostis Cinna Lam.) Cinna arundinacea var. inexpansa Fernald & Griscom, Rhodora 37: 135. 1935. (Type from Virginia, Fernald & Long 3648.)
Culms erect, glabrous, several-noded (nodes as many as 10), usually 1-1.5 meters tall; sheaths glabrous or scaberulous, mostly overlapping; ligule thin, nerved, somewhat scaberulous, soon deeply lacerate, about 1 cm. long; blades narrowed toward base, scaberulous or nearly smooth on the surfaces, scabrous on the margins, mostly more than 15 cm. long, and mostly less than 1 cm. wide; panicle narrow, many-flowered, rather dense, grayish, nodding, 15-30 cm. long, the branches ascending, some in each fascicle floriferous nearly to the base; spikelets acute, 5 mm. long; glumes somewhat unequal, acute, scabrous on the keel, somewhat scaberulous on the sides, the first 1-nerved, the second 3-nerved; lemma usually about as long as the second glume, glabrous, bearing below the tip a minute straight awn; palea apparently 1-nerved; prolongation of the rachilla minute.
Type locality: Canada.
Distribution: Moist woods, Maine to South Dakota, and southward to Georgia and eastern
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bibliographic citation
Albert Spear Hitchcock. 1937. (POALES); POACEAE (pars). North American flora. vol 17(7). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
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North American Flora

Physical Description

provided by USDA PLANTS text
Perennials, Aquatic, leaves emergent, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome short and compact, stems close, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems solitary, Stems swollen at base, tuberous, cormous or bulbous, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 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 m ostly 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 lax, widely spreading, branches drooping, pendulous, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, 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 below the glumes, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 1 nerved, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea shorter than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 1, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.
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compiler
Dr. David Bogler
source
Missouri Botanical Garden
source
USDA NRCS NPDC
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USDA PLANTS text