Scientific Name
Calamagrostis rubescens Buckley
Common Name(s)
Pinegrass, pine reedgrass
Tribe / Family Name
Poeae
Flowering Period
June to August
Symbol
CARU
Description
Pinegrass is a native cool-season perennial grass that is rhizomatous to loosely cespitose; reproduction occurs by rhizomes and seeds. Culms usually range from 60–100 cm in height and have purplish or reddish stem bases. The inflorescence is a contracted to somewhat open panicle (can look spike-like), usually 6–15 cm long, erect, occasionally loose and interrupted, and pale green or purple in color. Spikelets are 1-flowered and awned (the lemma awns are usually 2.8–3.5 mm long, attached below the middle of the lemma, twisted at the base, geniculate, and barely exceeding or below the glume tips). Ligules are usually 3–5 mm long, membranous, obtuse to truncate, and often lacerate and erose-ciliolate.
General Info
Pinegrass can be found in meadows, prairies, streambanks, and coniferous and aspen forests.
Similar Species
Pinegrass looks similar to Geyer’s sedge (Carex geyeri), especially in the vegetative state, and can normally be found together in forested areas. Pinegrass has lighter green leaves that are not basally arranged, and have purplish or reddish stem bases, while Geyer’s sedge has leaves that are basally arranged, dark green, coarse, and triangular. Pinegrass also has spike-like panicle inflorescences, and Geyer’s sedge has solitary spike inflorescences.
Picture of growth habit.
Inflorescence is a contracted to somewhat open panicle (can look spike-like).
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of ligule.
Illustration of pinegrass. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. <i>Manual of the grasses of the United States.</i> USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 200. Washington, DC.