Sphenopholis obtusata (Michx.).
Prairie Wedgescale

Habit: 		Tufted perennial.
Culms: 		30-100 cm. tall, erect or decumbent at base, solitary or a few culms in a tuft, often
		scabrous just below the panicle.
Blades: 	3-20 cm. long, 2-5 mm. wide, flat, scabrous, pubescent or glabrous.
Sheaths: 	Shorter than the internodes, rather lose, finely retrorsely pubescent to nearly glabrous.
Ligule: 	Membranous, 1.5-3 mm. long, erose.
Inflorescence: 	Panicles light-green or purplish, finely exserted, usually narrow, 5-20 cm. long,
		dense and spikelike to interrupted or lobed.
Spikelets: 	Crowded on glabrous pedicels about 1 mm. long, 2.5-3 mm. long; numerous,
		2-3-flowered (2 florets close together), shining, the pedicels disarticulating
		just below the glumes; rachilla prolonged behind the upper palea in a slender bristle,
		articulated between the florets, the glumes and lower floret with joint of pedicel
		tardily falling together.
Glumes: 	First glume narrow, about one fifth as wide as and somewhat shorter than the
		second, 1-nerved, usually acute; the second much broader, obovate when spread,
		obtuse or truncate, 3-5-nerved, the nerves sometimes obscure, the broad scarious
		margins smooth and shining, exceeded by the uppermost floret, becoming subcoriaceous in fruit.
Lemmas: 	(1.5)-2-2.5 mm. long, obtuse, narrower than the second glume, extending beyond it,
		minutely papillose, rarely mucronate or with a short straight awn, obscurely nerved.
Palea: 		Slightly shorter than its lemma, narrow, 2-nerved, hyaline, exposed.
Habitat: 	Prairies, fields, meadows and valleys. April-August.
Kansas Range:	Throughout.
Use: 		Forage grass but not usually abundant.
Synonyms:	Sphenopholis obtusata (Michx.) Scribn. var. lobata (Trin.) Scribn.
		Sphenopholis obtusata (Michx.) Scribn. var. pubescens (Scribn. & Merr.) Scribn.