Scientific Name
Thinopyrum intermedium (Host) Barkworth & D.R. Dewey (Synonyms: Agropyron intermedium; Elytrigia intermedia; Elymus hispidus)
Common Name(s)
Intermediate wheatgrass
Tribe / Family Name
Triticeae
Flowering Period
June to August
Symbol
THIN6
Description
Intermediate wheatgrass is an introduced cool-season rhizomatous grass that reproduces from seeds, tillers, and rhizomes. Culms range from 50–115 cm in height. Its inflorescence is an erect or lax, slender spike 8–21 cm long with an internode space of 7–12 mm long. Spikelets are 11–18 mm long, not imbricate or slightly so, appressed along the rachis, 1 per rachis node, 3- to 10-flowered, and sometimes short-awned (the lemma awns up to 5 mm long). Auricles are usually well-developed (up to 1.8 mm long). Ligules are very short (up to 0.8 mm long), membranous, truncate, entire to erose, and glabrous.
General Info
Intermediate wheatgrass can be found along roadsides, in meadows, pastures, disturbed areas, rangelands, foothills, plains, and montane sites, and is suited to a wide range of soil and moisture conditions.
Similar Species
Intermediate wheatrass may look similar to other rhizomatous wheatgrasses such as thickspike wheatgrass (Elymus lanceolatus ssp. lanceolatus), western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii), and quackgrass (Elymus repens). To distinguish it from these species, look for leaf veins of various spacing of intermediate wheatrgass. Although, quackgrass also has leaf veins of various spacing, intermediate wheatgrass has non- or slightly imbricate spikes with an internode space of 7–12 mm long, while quackgrass has strongly imbricate spikes with an internode space of 4–6 mm long.
Picture of rhizomatous growth habit.
Inflorescence is an erect or lax, slender spike.
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of short, membranous ligule.
Illustration of intermediate wheatgrass. Glen Cole, 2017.