Your help is appreciated. We depend on donations to help keep this site free and up to date for you. Can you please help us?

Donate

Native Plant Trust: Go Botany Discover thousands of New England plants

Tragus racemosus — stalked burgrass

Copyright: various copyright holders. To reuse an image, please click it to see who you will need to contact.

Facts

Stalked burgrass is native to Europe, Asia and Africa, and introduced in North And South America. It is a very occasional visitor to New England, having been collected in the dump sites of nineteenth-century wool carding factories and ships' ballast dump sites in Maine.

Habitat

Anthropogenic (man-made or disturbed habitats)

New England distribution

Adapted from BONAP data

Found this plant? Take a photo and post a sighting.

North America distribution

Adapted from BONAP data

enlarge

Characteristics

Habitat
terrestrial
New England state
Maine
Leaf blade width
1.5–4 mm
Inflorescence branches
the flowers are attached to branches rather than to the main axis of the inflorescence
Spikelet length
0.8–6.6 mm
Glume relative length
one or both glumes are as long or longer than all of the florets
Awn on glume
the glume has no awn
One or more florets
there is one floret per spikelet
Lemma awn length
0 mm
Leaf ligule length
0.5–1.3 mm
Anther length
0.6–0.8 mm
Show all characteristics
  • Flowers

    Anther length
    0.6–0.8 mm
    Anther number
    3
    Awn on glume
    the glume has no awn
    Floret lower bract texture
    the lemma is thin and flexible
    Glume relative length
    one or both glumes are as long or longer than all of the florets
    Glume veins
    • 0
    • 5
    • 7 or more
    Inflorescence axis orientation
    the inflorescence axis is straight
    Inflorescence branch length
    0.21–0.48 cm
    Inflorescence branches
    the flowers are attached to branches rather than to the main axis of the inflorescence
    Inflorescence length
    15–110 mm
    Inflorescence type (general)
    the spikelets are borne on stalks or on branches
    Inflorescence type (specific)
    the inflorescence is branched, and the branches do NOT both grow from the same side of the plant AND look like spikes
    Lemma awn base
    NA
    Lemma awn length
    0 mm
    Lemma awn number
    • the lemma has no awn
    • the lemma has one awn on it
    Lemma cross-section
    the lemma is flat or rounded if you cut across the midpoint
    Lemma surface
    the surface of the lemma is relatively smooth (not counting any longitudinal veins or hairs)
    Lemma tip
    the lemma tip is a simple point, with or without an awn (long narrow extension ending in a point)
    Lemma vein number
    3
    One or more florets
    there is one floret per spikelet
    Palea relative length
    palea is one half to fully as long as lemma
    Spikelet axis tip
    there is no extension of the spikelet axis beyond the tip of the spikelet
    Spikelet length
    0.8–6.6 mm
    Spikelets spiny
    the spikelets appear spiny and bur-like
  • Leaves

    Leaf auricles
    the leaves do not have auricles
    Leaf blade width
    1.5–4 mm
    Leaf ligule length
    0.5–1.3 mm
    Leaf ligule type
    the leaf ligule is in the form of a membrane with fine hairs
    Leaf sheath closed around stem
    the margins of the leaf sheath are overlapping and not fused together except in the basal half (or less)
  • Place

    Habitat
    terrestrial
    New England state
    Maine
    Specific habitat
    man-made or disturbed habitats
  • Stem, shoot, branch

    Stem spacing
    the stems grow close together in compact clusters or tufts

Wetland status

Not classified

In New England

Distribution

Connecticut
absent
Maine
present
Massachusetts
absent
New Hampshire
absent
Rhode Island
absent
Vermont
absent

Conservation status

None

From Flora Novae Angliae dichotomous key

2.  Tragus racemosus (L.) All. E

stalked burgrass. Cenchrus racemosus L.; Nazia racemosa (L.) Kuntze • ME. Wool waste, ballast.

Native to North America?

No

Sometimes confused with

Tragus berteronianus:
upper glume 5-veined, 1.8–4.3 mm long, with 5 longitudinal rows of spine-like projections, and panicle branches mostly 0.7–2.7 mm long (vs. T. racemosus, with upper glume 7-veined, 3.8–6.6 mm long, with mostly 6 or 7 longitudinal rows of spine-like projections, and panicle branches 2.1–4.8 mm long).

Synonyms

  • Cenchrus racemosus L.
  • Nazia racemosa (L.) Kuntze

Family

Poaceae

Genus

Tragus

loading