Luzula comosa var. laxa
- Scientific Name: Luzula comosa var. laxa
- Family: Juncaceae
- Common Names: Pacific woodrush
- Synonyms/Misapplications: Luzula intermedia, Luzula multiflora subsp. comosa
- Codon: LUZCOM
|Luzula comosa var. laxa|
|Genus:|| Luzula DC.|
|Species:|| Luzula comosa E. Mey|
|Subspecies:|| Luzula comosa var. laxa Buchenau (not accepted)|
Native tufted perennial, reaching 1-4 dm in height.
Leaves are grass-like, reddish to green, with long, fine hairs along leaf margin.
Inflorescence consists of 1 to 6 brownish glomerules (a condensed, headlike, cluster of flowers). The individual flowers consist of 6 membranous pallid, brownish tepals. Luzula comosa var. laxa generally has a more open, subumbellate inflorescence than Luzula comosa var. comosa, which has a tighter capitate inflorescence.
April to July
BC to California, along both sides of Cascades, east to Alberta, Montana, Utah, and New Mexico.
Openings, rocky slopes, forest, and shores, coastal to montane.
Seed sample from: 2008
Average Measurement: 1.5 x 0.9 x 0.9
Measurement Range: L: 1.2 – 1.8, W: 0.8 – 1, D:0.8 – 1
Shape: Seeds have prominent white caruncle. Seed mostly round except for a slightly pointed tapering at hilum and opposite apex.
Color: Seed coat is white over a dark reddish brown seed body.
Surface: On one side of seed there is a cloudy white line that crosses from hilum to opposite apex. Seed is lustrous and marked with many fine longitudinal lines.
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved from https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=39339#null
- Bowcutt, F., & Hamman, Sarah. (2016). Vascular plants of the South Sound prairies (First ed.). Olympia, Washington: The Evergreen State College Press.
- Hitchcock, C. L., Cronquist, A., Giblin, D., & Legler, B. et al. (2018). Flora of the Pacific Northwest: an illustrated manual. Seattle: University of Washington Press.