Tridens strictus (Nutt.).
Longspike Tridens

Habit: 		Tufted perennial.
Culms: 		Stout, erect, 1-1.5 m. tall, mostly in small tufts, sometimes branched.
Blades: 	20-40 cm. long, 3-8 mm. wide, long-acuminate, smooth except on the margins,
		flat or loosely involute.
Sheaths: 	Longer or shorter than the internodes.
Ligule: 	A ring of loose hairs 1-2 mm. long.
Inflorescence: 	Panicle 10-30 cm. long, 8-15 mm. wide, dense, spikelike, more or less
		interrupted below, narrowed above, pale or purplish, the branches appressed,
		the lower 2-7 cm. long, naked below, progressively shorter above.
Spikelets: 	Pale or purplish, 4-6 mm. long, about 3 mm. wide, 4-8-flowered, the florets
		closely imbricate, rachilla disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets.
Glumes: 	4-6 mm. long, from exceeding the lowest floret to as long as the spikelet,
		equal, 1-nerved, acuminate or irregularly toothed at the apex, the apex spreading,
		the keel glandular-viscid towards maturity.
Lemmas: 	2-3 mm. long, oblong, obtuse, toothed, membranous, 3-nerved, pilose on the
		lower half to two thirds, the keel excurrent as a minute awn up to 1.5 mm. long.
Palea:		Obtuse, thin, about as long as its lemma, short-ciliate on the sharp keels,
		not strongly bowed out.
Fruit: 		Grain concavo-convex.
Habitat: 	Moist soil and low woods.  July-September.
Kansas Range:	Southeast twelfth.