Elymus vulpinus Rydb.:
Canada (North America)
United States (North America)

Agropyron vulpinum (Rydb.) Hitchc.:
United States (North America)

Canada

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Global Range: NE (Grant Co.) and MT (Livingston) (B51HIT01HQUS). Kartesz places mainly in western Canada, accepting the disjunct Nebraska report (from Can. J. Bot. 1965).

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differen tiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blade auriculate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence simple spikes, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence curved, twisted or nodding, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Inflorescence spikelets arranged in a terminal bilateral spike, Rachis dilated, flat, central axis to which spikelets are attached, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets paired at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spike lets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel hairy, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes awned, awn 1-5 mm or longer, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex dentate, 2-fid, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn from sinus of bifid apex, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear, Caryopsis hairy at apex.

Isotype for Elymus vulpinus Rydb.
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany
Verification Degree: Alleged type specimen status verified from secondary sources
Preparation: Pressed specimen
Collector(s): P. A. Rydberg
Year Collected: 1893
Locality: Lake region, 3.5 miles NE of Whitman., Grant, Nebraska, United States, North America

Comments: Moist ground.
Meadows (Rydberg 1932).

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Rounded Global Status Rank: G2 - Imperiled

Reasons: The taxomony is questioned in Great Plains Flora Association (1986); this poorly known plant is reported from Western Canada (B.C., Alta., Sask.) and from Nebraska.

Comments: Elymus vulpinus Rydb., Torrey Bot. Club Bul. 36: 540. 1909. Grant County, Nebr., Rydberg 1617. E. vulpinus is a synonym of Agropyron vulpinum (Rydb.) Hitchc. However, Hitchcock states that "the name Elymus vulpinus Rydb. is based on sterile plants from Nebraska: Grant, which may represent sterile hybrids between some species of Elymus and a rhizomatous Agropyron".