Weeping Alkali Grass

Foodplant / parasite
Blumeria graminis parasitises live Puccinellia distans

Perennial, tufted, pale green. Culms erect or geniculate, 20–40(–60) cm tall, ca. 1–2 mm in diam. Ligule 1–2 mm, truncate or toothed; leaf blade flat or conduplicate, 2–10 cm, 1–2 mm wide, abaxial surface scabrid. Panicle open, 5–15 × 5–6 cm; branches 2–6 per node, horizontally spreading or reflexed, lower part naked, scabrid. Spikelets 4–6 mm, florets 3–7; glumes obtuse, lower glume 1–1.5 mm, 1-veined, upper glume 1.5–2 mm, 3-veined; lemmas 1.8–2.2 mm, base pubescent, apex truncate or rounded; palea keels scabrid; anthers 0.5–0.8 mm. Fl. May–Jul. 2n = 28, 42.

Tufted perennial; culms 4-65 cm high, erect to decumbent. Leaf-blades flat or convolute, 2-10 cm long, 1.5-4 mm wide, green or glaucous, scabrid above. Panicle narrowly to broadly ovate or pyramidal, 3-18 cm long, usually very loose and open, the branches bare in the lower part, smooth to coarsely scabrid, eventually deflexed. Spikelets 3-7 mm long, 3-9-flowered, green or tinged with purple, sometimes variegated with white or yellow; glumes ovate to elliptic, blunt, the lower 0.5-1.5 mm long, 1-nerved, the upper 1-2.5 mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas 2-25 mm long, broadly oblong-elliptic, very blunt, minutely hairy at the base, the nerves not reaching the tip; palea keels minutely hairy; anthers (0.5-) 0.8-1 mm long.

Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Japan, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; NW Africa, SW Asia, Europe, North America].

Saline moist grassy places, field banks, river valleys, lowland saline abandoned meadows; 100–2000 m.

Poa distans Jacquin, Observ. Bot 1: 42. 1764; Atropis dis-tans (Jacquin) Grisebach; Puccinellia filiformis Keng.

Perennials, Aquatic, leaves emergent, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, St ems 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 cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence lax, widely spreading, branches drooping, pendulous, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Lower panicle branches whorled, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets late rally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Glumes 3 nerved, Glume margins or apex erose-ciliate, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs shorter than lemma, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, S tigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Puccinellia distans is a species of grass known by the common names weeping alkaligrass and European alkali grass. It is native to Europe and it is present in most of North America, where it is perhaps an introduced species. It grows in moist habitat, usually in areas with saline soils, such as the edges of salted roads. It is a perennial herb producing hollow stems up to 40 to 60 centimeters in maximum height. The inflorescence is a spreading array of branches, the lower ones reflexed. The branches bear several rough-haired spikelets containing flowers.