Dichanthelium linearifolium Scribn.
Slimleaf Dichanthelium

Habit: 		Densely tufted perennial.
Vernal form: 	Light green, in dense tufts, often accompanied by the more or less curved
		withered leaves of the previous year.
Culms: 		20-45 cm. tall, erect, very slender, spreading or almost drooping at the summit,
		nodes often pubescent to pilose and close to the ground.
Blades: 	10-35 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, usually exceeding the panicle, glabrous to hairy.
Sheaths: 	More or less papillose-pilose, usually equaling or exceeding the internodes.
Ligule: 	A ring of hairs less than 1 mm. long.
Inflorescence: 	Panicle finally exserted on very slender peduncles, 5-10 cm. long,
		half to two thirds as wide, few-flowered; branches flexuous; ascending.
Spikelets: 	2.2-2.7 mm. long, about 1.3 mm. wide, oblong-elliptic, obtuse or subacute,
		sparsely pilose, 1-2-flowered.
Glumes: 	The first one third to one fourth as long as the spikelet, obtuse or pointed
		by the inrolling of the margins, ovate, 1-nerved, the 7-9-nerved second glume and
		sterile lemma subequal about equaling the fruit at maturity, thin, pale, sterile
		palea about one third as long as its lemma.
Fertile lemmas:	Shorter and more obtuse than the glumes, chartaceous, glabrous and shining,
		at length indurated, enclosing a palea.
Fruit: 		2 mm. long, about 1.2 mm. wide, oval, obscurely umbonate at the summit,
		grain free within the rigid firmly closed lemma and palea.
Autumnal form:	Similar, the reduced panicles hidden among the basal leaves.
Habitat: 	Dry woods.  May-July.
Kansas Range:	Southeast (Chautauqua and Cherokee counties).
Synonyms:	Panicum linearifolium Scribn. ex Nash
		Panicum linearifolium Scribn. ex Nash var. werneri (Scribn.) Fern.
		Panicum perlongum Nash
		Panicum strictum Pursh var. linearifolium (Scribn. ex Nash) Farw.
		Panicum strictum Pursh var. perlongum (Nash) Farw.
		Panicum werneri Scribn.