Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Puccinellia airoides (Nutt.) S. Wats. & Coult.
- Family: Grass (Gramineae)
- Flowering: June-August
- Field Marks: The genus Puccinellia is distinguished by its several-flowered spikelets and its obscurely nerved, unkeeled lemmas without awns. This species is recognized from others in the genus by its pointed lemmas about 1/4 inch long.
- Habitat: Alkaline flats.
- Habit: Tufted perennial grass with fibrous roots.
- Stems: Upright, up to 2 feet tall, smooth or rough to the touch.
- Leaves: Narrow, elongated, rolled up into a tube, up to 1/12 inch wide.
- Flowers: 2-7 in a spikelet, with several spikelets forming an open panicle with erect to spreading branches; spikelets up to 1/4 inch long, pointed at the tip; lemmas rounded on the back, awnless, with obscure nerves.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Grains: Smooth, about 1/16 inch long.
- Notes: This plant in the past was called Puccinellia nuttalliana.
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