Scientific Name
Elymus glaucus Buckley
Common Name(s)
Blue wildrye
Tribe / Family Name
Triticeae
Flowering Period
June to August
Symbol
ELGL
Description
Blue wildrye is a native cool-season perennial bunchgrass; herbage is green to glaucous. Culms range from 30–140 cm in height. Its inflorescence is a dense, erect to slightly nodding spike 5–21 cm long, ordinarily variegated purple and green, and not shattering at maturity. Spikelets are 10–16 mm long, imbricate, borne flatwise along the rachis, usually 2 per rachis node (but varying from 1-3), 2- to 3(4)-flowered, and awned (awns usually up to 30 mm long and straight or slightly curving). Auricles are well-developed (about 2.5 mm long) and often purplish. Ligules are short (up to 1 mm long), membranous, truncate, occasionally entire or erose-ciliolate, and glabrous.
General Info
Blue wildrye is commonly found in the understory of quaking aspen ( Populus tremuloides). However, it can also be found along roadsides, in meadows, thickets, open forests, shrublands, prairies, dry to moist hillsides, and montane to subalpine sites.
Similar Species
Blue wildrye looks similar to other wildrye species, but has some very unique vegetative characteristics. Remember to look at the loosely tufted growth habit with wide, flat, drooping leaves, long variegated green and purple seed heads, and broad-based glumes with tapered tips and evident venation when compared to other wildryes.
Picture of growth habit.
Close-up picture of spike inflorescence.
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of subequal glumes.
Close-up picture of membranous ligule and auricle.
Illustration of blue wildrye. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. <i>An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols</i>. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 1: 289.