Coefficient of Conservatism:
*
Coefficient of Wetness:
3
Wetness Index:
FACU
Physiognomy:
Ad P-Grass
R. Schipper
Roadsides, yards, and disturbed places; spreading in forests and on shores. An occasional weed or waif first collected in Ingham Co. in 1887; often planted as a cover crop but not so common out of cultivation as many of our forage grasses.
We have both var. perenne and var. aristatum Willd., the latter often recognized as a distinct species, L. multiflorum Lam. It differs from typical L. perenne in the following characters: lemmas awned (not awnless), 10 or more in a spikelet (not 10 or fewer); rachis scabrous on convex surface as well as edges (not on edges only); auricles prominent, elongate (not absent or small); leaf blades in young shoots inrolled at the margins (not merely folded lengthwise); plants annual or biennial (not perennial). The two taxa evidently hybridize, and our populations include so many specimens that are somewhat intermediate as to make recognition of two entities arbitrary.