Northern Rosette Grass

Panicum boreale Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 22: 421. 1895
Vernal phase cespitose ; culms erect, or in shaded places sometimes decumbent at base, usually 30-50 cm. high, the nodes glabrous or sometimes with a few hairs; leaf -sheaths often 253
overlapping, ciliate on the margin, glabrous, or the lower sparsely pubescent; blades erect, or in laxer forms spreading, sparsely ciliate at 'the rounded base, otherwise glabrous, 6-12 cm. long, 7-12 mm. wide; panicles loosely rather few-flowered, 5-10 cm. long, hardly as wide, the branches ascending or spreading; spikelets 2-2.2 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, elliptic, subacute, pubescent; first glume one third as long as the spikelet or less; second glume and sterile lemma subequal, the glume scarcely as long as the fruit at maturity; fruit 1.9 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, elliptic, subacute.
Autumnal phase erect, sparingly branched from all the nodes in late summer, the branches erect, the leaves and panicles not greatly reduced.
Type locality : Cairo, New York .
Distribution: Newfoundland to New Jersey, and west to Minnesota.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, 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 hairy at summit, throat, or collar, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades lanceolate, Leaf blades ovate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Ligule a fringe of hairs, 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, Inflorescence or spikelets partially hidden in leaf sheaths, subtended by spatheole, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 2 florets, 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, Glu mes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 3 nerved, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma becoming indurate, enclosing palea and caryopsis, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma 8-15 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins inrolled, tightly covering palea and caryopsis, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea about equal to lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.