Vegetative Morphology
Culms	30-80 cm.
Ligules	1-2 mm.
Blades	2-15 cm long, (1)2-5(7) mm wide, flat to slightly involute.
Reproductive Morphology
Panicles	6-20 cm long, 1-5 cm wide, nodding to erect, spikelets loosely to densely arranged.
Spikelets	2.5-5 mm.
Lower glumes	at least 1/3 as wide as the upper glumes.
Upper glumes	2-3.2 mm, obovate, rarely subcucullate, width/length ratio 0.22-0.38.
Lowest lemmas	2.1-3.8 mm, smooth on the basal 1/3-1/2, scabrous distally, unawned.
Distal lemmas	scabrous on the sides.
Awns of distal lemmas	absent or, if rarely present, 0.1-1 mm.
Anthers	(0.5)1-2 mm.

Chromosome Number(s)

2n = 14

Typical Habitat(s)

Found in moist to dry, deciduous and coniferous forests, on clay or silt banks and slopes from 0-1200 meters.

Nativity / Range

Found in southern Ontario and the eastern United States.

Similar Species

Differing from S. obtusata in possessing wider lower glumes.

Name/Synonymy Publication Info

Sphenopholis nitida (Biehler) Scribner, Rhodora 8:144 (1906). Aira nitida Biehler, Pl. nov. herb. Spreng. 8 (1807); Eatonia nitida (Biehler) Nash, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 22:511 (1895); Reboulea nitida (Biehler) Farw., Rep. (Annual) Michigan Acad. Sci. 17:181 (1916). HOL: B, photo US; U.S.A., Pennsylvania: eastern Pennsylvania; G.H.E. ["H."] Muhlenberg.

Aira pensylvanica Sprengel, M?m. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. P?tersbourg Hist. Acad. 2:299, pl. 7 (1808); Koeleria pensylvanica [as "pennsylvanica"] (Sprengel) DC., Cat. pl. horti. monsp. 117 (1813); Trisetum pensylvanicum [as "pennsylvanicum"] (Sprengel) Trin., M?m. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Petersbourg, Ser. 6, Sci. Math. 1:66 (1830), non (L.) P. Beauv. ex Roemer & Schultes (1817); Glyceria pensylvanica (Sprengel) Heynh., Nom. bot. hort. 1:361 (1840); Reboulea pensylvanica [as "pennsylvanica"] (Sprengel) A. Gray, Manual 591 (1848); Eatonia pensylvanica [as "pennsylvanica "] (Sprengel) A. Gray, Manual, ed. 2, 558 (1856). TYPE: not located.

Eatonia dudleyi Vasey, Bot. Gaz. 11:116 (1886). TYPE: U.S.A., New York: Ithaca; 1882; W.R. Dudley.

Eatonia glabra Nash in Britton, Man. fl. n. states 1043 (1901); Sphenopholis nitida subsp. glabra (Nash) Scribner, Rhodora 8:145 (1906); Sphenopholis nitida var. glabra (Nash) Scribner ex B.L. Rob., Rhodora 10:65 (1908); Sphenopholis glabra (Nash) A. Heller, Muhlenbergia 6:12 (1910); Reboulea nitida var. glabra (Nash) Farw., Rep. (Annual) Michigan Acad. Sci. 17:181 (1916). TYPE: U.S.A., Tennessee: Madison County; Apr 1893; S.M. Bain 507.

Treatment From

T.F. Daniel. Sphenopholis in Flora of North America, volume 24. In prep. Oxford University Press.

Vegetative Morphology