Family: Poaceae |
Mary E. Barkworth FNA 24:776-779 Plants perennial; strongly rhizomatous. Culms 20–130 cm, erect, glabrous.Leaves mostly basal; sheathsopen; auricles absent; ligules membranous, sometimes ciliolate; blades 0.5–8 mm wide, involute or convolute. Inflorescences terminal panicles, dense, cylindrical; branchesstrongly ascending and overlapping. Spikelets pedicellate, laterally compressed, with 1 floret; rachillas prolonged beyond the florets, glabrous or hairy; disarticulation above the glumes, beneath the florets. Glumes equaling or exceeding the florets, subequal, linear-lanceolate, papery, keeled, acute to acuminate; lower glumes 1-veined; upper glumes 3-veined; calluses short, pilose; lemmas chartaceous, linear-lanceolate, obscurely 3–5-veined, keeled, sometimes slightly rounded at the base, apices entire or minutely bifid, unawned or awned, awns 0.2–0.5 mm, subterminal; paleas equaling the lemmas, often appearing 1-keeled, 2- or 4-veined, central veins close together; lodicules 2, free, membranous, ciliate or glabrous, not toothed; anthers 3, 3–7 mm; ovaries glabrous. Caryopsesenclosed by the hardened lemma and palea, ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved; hila about 2/3 as long as the caryopses. x = 7. Name from the Greek ammos, ‘sand’, and philos, ‘loving’ a reference to its habitat. Ammophila has three species, one native to the coast of Europe and northern Africa, and two to eastern North America. All three species are effective sand binders and dune stabilizers. They are sometimes mistaken for Leymus arenarius and Leymus mollis, which grow in the same habitats and have a similar habit, but species of Leymus have more than 1 floret per spikelet. SELECTED REFERENCES Cope, E.A. 1994. Further notes on beachgrasses (Ammophila) in northeastern North America. Newsletter New York Fl. Assoc. 5(1):5–7; Reznicek, A.A. and E.J. Judziewicz. 1996. A new hybrid species, ´Calammophila don-hensonii (Ammophila breviligulata ´ Calamagrostis canadensis, Poaceae) from Grand Island, Michigan. Michigan Bot. 35:35–40; Seabloom, E.W. and A.M. Wiedemann. 1994. Distribution and effects of Ammophila breviligulata Fern. (American beachgrass) on the foredunes of the Washington coast. J. Coastal Res. 10:178–188; Stern, R.J. 1983. Morphometric and phenologic variability in Ammophila breviligulata Fernald. Master’s thesis, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, U.S.A. 29 pp.; Walker, P.J., C.A. Paris, and D.S. Barrington. 1998. Taxonomy and phylogeography of the North American beachgrasses. Amer. J. Bot. 85, Suppl.:87 [abstract]. Key to species of Ammophila. ©Utah State University; reproduced with permission. |