Leymus cinereus
Encyclopedia
Leymus cinereus is a species of wild rye
known by the common names basin wild rye and giant wild rye. It is a common native grass of western North America, including western Canada and the United States from California
to South Dakota
and Minnesota
. It grows in many types of habitat, including grassland and prairie
, forests, scrub, chaparral
, and sagebrush
.
This is a perennial bunchgrass forming large, tough clumps up to 2 meters tall and sometimes exceeding one meter in diameter. It has a large, fibrous root system and sometimes small rhizome
s. The inflorescence
is an unbranched, cylindrical spike divided into up to 35 nodes with several flower spikelets per node.
Leymus
Leymus is a genus of the true grass family . The common name for this genus is "wild rye"; however, members of the genus Elymus are also sometimes given the same common name...
known by the common names basin wild rye and giant wild rye. It is a common native grass of western North America, including western Canada and the United States from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
and Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. It grows in many types of habitat, including grassland and prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
, forests, scrub, chaparral
Chaparral
Chaparral is a shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the U.S. state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico...
, and sagebrush
Sagebrush
Sagebrush is a common name of a number of shrubby plant species in the genus Artemisia native to western North America;Or, the sagebrush steppe ecoregion, having one or more kinds of sagebrush, bunchgrasses and others;...
.
This is a perennial bunchgrass forming large, tough clumps up to 2 meters tall and sometimes exceeding one meter in diameter. It has a large, fibrous root system and sometimes small rhizome
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
s. The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
is an unbranched, cylindrical spike divided into up to 35 nodes with several flower spikelets per node.