Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Bog Oatgrass - Danthonia epilis   Lamson-Scribner
Members of Poaceae:
Members of Danthonia with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 5 » Order Cyperales » Family Poaceae
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AuthorLamson-Scribner
DistributionSandhills and the southern half of the Mountains, with a large and real gap between.

Southern NJ to central TN, northern GA, and northern AL, mostly in the Appalachians.
AbundanceUncommon in both regions. This is a Significantly Rare species.
HabitatWet to moist soils of rock outcrops with seepage zones, granitic domes with seepage zones, montane bogs, wet blackwater streamheads and ecotones in the Sandhills.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting May-July.
IdentificationThe relatively short leaves are mostly at ground level in a tuft and are hairy. The stems grow 2-4.5 feet, with a terminal inflorescence and spikelets with conspicuous awns. Lemmas may be pilose on the margins but usually glabrous on the backs, as opposed to Silky Oatgrass (D. sericea), which is hairy all over the lemmas. Some plants may not key cleanly due to intermediate morphology -- this is a concern, and the taxonomic status of this species needs to be reviewed.
Taxonomic CommentsBy some authors lumped within D. sericea, typically as D. sericea var. epilis.

Other Common Name(s)Carolina Oatgrass, Bog Wile Oatgrass
State RankS3
Global RankG4
State StatusSR-T
US Status
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USACE-empOBL link
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photographercommentsphoto_linkcountyobsType
B.A. SorrieFort Bragg, Northern Training Area, seepage slopes, 1993. HarnettPhoto_natural
B.A. SorrieRichmond County, 2015, Sandhills Game Land, streamhead ecotone.
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