Scientific Name
Apera interrupta (L.) P. Beauv. (Synonyms: Agrostis interrupta)
Common Name(s)
Dense silkybent, interrupted windgrass
Tribe / Family Name
Poeae
Flowering Period
May to July
Symbol
APIN
Description
Dense silkybent is an introduced cool-season annual bunchgrass. Culms usually range from 10–50 cm in height. Its inflorescence is a contracted panicle usually 3–15 cm long and somewhat interrupted below. Spikelets are 2–2.8 mm long, green or purplish, 1-flowered, and awned (awns usually 4–10 mm long, straight or flexuous, and attached near the tips of the lemmas). Ligules are up to 5 mm long, membranous, acute to truncate, lacerate-erose, and decurrent along the margins of the sheath.
General Info
Dense silkybent can be found along roadsides, in grain fields, foothills, plains, disturbed sagebrush steppe and open coniferous forests, dry wastelands, sandy open ground, and montane areas.
Similar Species
Dense silkybent can look similar to a bentgrass (Agrostis) plant. Like dense silkybent, other bentgrass species contain glumes with scabrous midribs that envelop a single tiny floret. However, the firm lemmas, presence of the paleae, prolonged rachillas, and long, straight or flexuous awns of dense silkybent distinguishes it from other bentgrass species.
Picture of growth habit.
Close-up picture of narrow spike-like panicle.
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of membranous ligule.
Illustration of dense silkybent. 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.