Slender wedgegrass occurs primarily in eastern BC. However, it has been collected in the Fraser Valley. Lomer (2011) provides this discussion: "Collected from dredged sand in Surrey, east of Vancouver (UBC: Lomer 93-73). This grass is known from the Thompson River, as well as other sites in BC, so seeds were probably washed down into the Fraser and sprouted in the dredging. In 2010 a single plant was observed on the sandy meadow shore of an island in the Fraser River southwest of Agassiz. So it appears this species can arise naturally from material washed down the Fraser River from interior sites, thus it should be considered native [in the valley]." (Reprinted with permission from Botanical Electronic News # 438.)

General:
Perennial, tufted, short-lived grass from fibrous roots, sometimes flowering as a winter annual; stems 30-110 cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open; blades flat, 2-5 mm wide, minutely rough; ligules smooth or rarely minutely rough externally, finely jagged and irregularly toothed, 1.5-2.5 mm long.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a distinctly open, narrow panicle, (2) 7-20 cm long, the branches crowded, erect, plainly distinguishable within the inflorescence; spikelets 2-flowered, lower glumes narrowly linear, 1.6-2.5 mm long, the upper ones oblanceolate, rounded to nearly sharp-pointed, 2.2-2.5 mm long, about 2 to 3 times as wide as the lower; lemmas 2.5-3 mm long; anthers about 0.6 mm long.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Sphenopholis intermedia var. pilosa Dore
Sphenopholis obtusata var. major (Torr.) K.S. Erdman