Nealley's Viper Grass

Leptochloa nealleyi Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club 12: 7. 1885
Leptochloa slricla Fourn. Mex. PI. Gram. 2: 147. 1886. (Type from Vera Cruz, Mexico, Gouin 73.)
Perennial; culms erect, rather coarse, solitary or in small clumps, flattened, as much as 120 cm. tall, glabrous; sheaths flattened, keeled, glabrous, mostly longer than the internodes; ligule membranaceous, obtuse, 2-3 mm. long; blades flat or becoming loosely rolled, conduplicate at the base, acuminate, scabrous, 15-45 cm. long, 3-10 mm. wide; inflorescence 20-45 cm. long, about 3 cm. wide; spikes numerous, ascending or appressed, arranged in somewhat distant dense fascicles, the lower ones as much as 6 cm. long, the upper ones successively shorter; spikelets crowded, 2-5-flowered, 1.8-3 mm. long; glumes obtuse, more or less erose, the first about 1 mm. long, the second a little longer; lemmas 1.5-2 mm. long, obtuse, minutely lobed, mucronate, pubescent on the midnerve and margins.
Type locality: Texas {Nealley). .
Distribution; Swampy ground and wet roadside ditches, l,ouisiana, Texas, Sinaloa, Vera Cruz, and Yucatan; Cuba.

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stems compressed, flattened, or sulcate, Stems branching above base or distally at nodes, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath hairy at summit, throat, or collar, 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, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wr inkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Inflorescence branches 1-sided, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Spikelets secund, in rows on one side of rachis, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartil aginous, or membranous, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.