Lattice Joint Tail Grass

Coelorachis tessellata (Steud.) Nash
Rottboellia tessellata Steud. Syn. Gram. 362. 1855.
Rottboellia corrugata Chapm. Fl. S. U. S. 579. 1860. Not R. corrugata Baldw. 1819.
Manisuris tessellata Scribn. Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 20 : 20. 1900.
Stems tufted, much compressed, 8-12 dm. tall, stout ; leaf-sheaths much flattened, broad, keeled; blades 4 dm. long or less, 3-8 mm. wide; racemes finally exserted, 6-12 cm. long, straight, the rachis barely if at all contracted at the nodes ; sessile spikelet about 5 mm. long, a little exceeding the internode, the first scale deeply pitted, the pits quadrangular ; pedicellate spikelet of 1 or 2 scales, about one half as long as the linear straight pedicel, which is shorter than the sessile spikelet.
Type locality : Louisiana.
Distribution : Georgia and Florida to Louisiana.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems compressed, flattened, or sulcate, Stem nodes bearded or hairy, Stem internodes solid or spongy, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 2-6 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuo usly 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath or blade keeled, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Ligule a fringe of hairs, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Flowers bisexual, Flowers unisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelets paired at rachis nodes, Spikelets in paired units, 1 sessile, 1 pedicellate, Pedicellate spikelet rudimentary or absent, usually sterile , Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Spikelets closely appressed or embedded in concave portions of axis, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glume with rectangular pits, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.