Living Landscapes

GRASSES OF THE COLUMBIA BASIN OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Heather Stewart, Richard Hebda
Major Groups of Grasses
Table of Contents
Glossary

Scolochloa

This genus has two species worldwide. One in eastern Asia, and the other in Eurasia and North America. The name Scolochloa comes from Greek scolops, which means prickle and chloa, which means grass. The species occurring in British Columbia is not prickly.

Scolochloa festucacea (Willd.) Link
Fluminea festucacea (Willd.)
Sprangle-top

Plant: Scolochloa festucacea is a native species that grows to 1-1.5 m tall. It is a stout perennial with a thick rhizome. The flowerhead is long and open, and the long branches are mostly naked below the mid-point with the spikelets are located at the end of branches.
Leaves and Stem: The papery sheaths are open. The membranelike ligule is 2-6 mm long and ragged along the edge. The flat leaf blades are 5-10 mm wide with a long, slender tip and a rough upper surface. There are no ligules.
Flowerhead and Flowers: The open flowerhead is 15-25 cm long and the diverging branches are upward-pointing and mostly naked below the midlength. The spikelets are three- to four-flowered. The unequal glumes are thin, pointed and the longest glume is equal to the lemma of the first flower. There are no awns, but the glumes and the lemmas are pointed. The lemmas have seven noticeable nerves that are raised and converge at the tip.
Habitat: Sprangle-top is a Blue-listed species in the B.C. Conservation Data Centre database. It grows in standing water of shallow ponds along streambanks and lakeshores in the steppe and montane zones. It has a restricted distribution in British Columbia, and in the Columbia Basin it is only found at Grasmere and Canal Flats.
Similar Species: Superficially, Spangle-top resembles the hybrid Festulolium, but the presence of the rhizome in Sprangle-top is diagnostic.

Living Landscapes

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