Andropogon virginicus L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Andropogon virginicus L.

• Description

  Species Description - Culms tufted, 5–15 dm, branched above, mostly glabrous and often glaucous, the uppermost nodes sometimes sparsely villous; lvs often pilose on the sheath and ligule, the blade 3–8 mm wide; uppermost lvs spathe-like, enclosing the short (2–10 mm) peduncle and base of the few–many paired racemes, these 2–3 cm, with slender, flexuous, long-villous rachis; fertile spikelet 3–5 mm, shorter than the long-villous sterile pedicel, but longer than the internode just above it, the straight awn 1–2 cm; stamen mostly solitary; sterile spikelet none, or a delicate narrow glume to 2 mm; 2n=20. Our two principal vars. are very distinct northward, but pass freely into each other along the coastal plain from Md. southward through a series of intermediate forms often called var. glaucopsis (Elliott) Hitchc.

• Common Names

  broom-sedge