Calamagrostis stricta (Timm) Koeler, panicles of three morphs from Finland (from the left: Lohja, Jalassaari, 1991; Vihti, Kourla, 1991; Lammi, Taka-Killo, 1991). – Image: Harri Harmaja (scanned from dried specimens).
The circumpolar grass Calamagrostis stricta (Poaceae) is known as a variable species. E.g., several taxa with long glumes (i.e., long spikelets) have been described from northern and arctic areas; their taxonomic value has remained unsettled. Material from southern Finland is also variable. The present account describes briefly the differentiating characteristics of three morphs, originating from three localities. The morphs share many features: the apex of the culm and the branches of the panicle are grooved and aculeolate, the leaves have equally-sized prominently elevated veins adaxially, these veins are aculeolate, the leaves get inrolled in drying, the glumes are aculeolate on keel and scabrid elsewhere, and the hairs and the awn of the lemma are fairly similar in all of them.
1) C. sp. (Lohja): This plant deviates from typical C. stricta: (i) the glumes are only 2.0-2.7 mm long, (ii) the glumes are ovate, and (iii) the awn of the lemma extends very shortly beyond the glume tips. The lemma reaches the level of the glume tips or even extends very shortly beyond the latter, which is exceptional in the genus (this feature appeared to vary slightly in different seasons!). The ligule of the uppermost leaf of the culm is very short, 0.5-1 mm long. Adaxially, the leaf is similar to typical C. stricta. The plant grew on lakeshore. The glume characters strongly remind of C. micrantha Kearney, described from North America. The last-named is generally not considered worth of recognizing but is held as a synonym of C. stricta.
2) C. stricta s. str. (Vihti). The glumes are roughly 3.0-3.2 mm long, being broadly lanceolate. The glume tips extend very shortly beyond the awn of the lemma. The ligule of the uppermost cauline leaf is roughly 1 mm long. The habitat was lakeshore. A superficial search in the herbarium of the Botanical Museum (H) of the Finnish Museum of Natural History revealed that the Finnish specimens identified as C. stricta are generally referable to the present taxon. The glumes of C. stricta s. str. are given as ca. 3-4 mm long in the literature, and those of most herbarium specimens were indeed between these limits.
3) C. sp. (Lammi). This taxon deviates from typical C. stricta: (i) the glumes are roughly 4 mm long, being moderately lanceolate (they appear slightly longer and slightly narrower relatively than those of typical C. stricta), (ii) the awn of the lemma extends very shortly beyond the tips of the glumes, (iii) the plant is generally taller, the culms reaching at least a length of 125 cm, (iv) the leaves are clearly longer: one uppermost cauline leaf measured 24 cm and the narrow leaves of the sterile shoots were up to 53 cm (in C. stricta s. str., the uppermost leaf of the culm is roughly 5-13 cm long), (v) the ligule of the uppermost cauline leaf is longer, ca. 3.5 mm, (vi) the leaves are hairy adaxially, and (vii) the lowest branches of the panicle are rather clearly longer than the upper ones, resulting the panicle to be narrowly pyramid-shaped at anthesis (the inflorescence of typical C. stricta is narrow and almost equally wide throughout). This plant was growing in great amounts in the inundated marshy shore of a small lake, situated by a glaciofluvial delta. The water of the lake is fairly clear, unpolluted, and slightly alkaline (Taka-Killo). This Calamagrostis does not appear to be any hybrid as to morphology, but I did not get a definite vision about the quality of its anthers. The present plant resembles C. inexpansa A.Gray of North America.
Created March 25, 2004.