Leptochloa fascicularis (Lam.) Bearded Spangletop Habit: Annual, somewhat succulent. Culms: Erect to spreading or prostrate, tufted, somewhat flattened, freely branching, 30-100 cm. tall. Blades: Up to 50 cm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, flat, soon involute, the midrib and veins on the upper surface white and prominent, long-attenuate, rough, the upper sheathing the base of the panicle. Sheaths: Longer than the internodes, loose, rough toward the summit. Ligule: Membranous, 3-4 mm. long. Inflorescence: Panicle as long as 60 cm., made up of as many as 40 racemelike branches 8-12 cm. long, bearing appressed, overlapping spikelets to the base, pedicels about 1 mm. long. Spikelets: 6-12-flowered, 8-10 mm. long, flattened, the uppermost floret usually imperfect or rudimentary, rachilla disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets. Glumes: 1-nerved, more or less acute, scabrous on the keel, somewhat scarious, first 2-2.5 mm. long, the second 3-3.5 mm. long, usually shorter than the spikelets. Lemmas: Exclusive of the awns 3-3.5 mm. long, acutish, narrow, 3-nerved, entire or the midnerve produced into an awn about 1 mm. long from between a bifid apex made by 2 small lateral teeth, the 3 nerves villous on the lower half, rachilla-joint about 1 mm. long, hairy at the apex. Palea: Shorter than the lemma. Habitat: Brackish meadows, or in ditches, alkali flats or shallow water. August-September. Kansas Range: Scattered in east three fourths. Remarks: Quite variable.