page_title: Orcuttia
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Orcuttia / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Orcuttia californica - Endemic bunchgrass of California. from Jose Hernandez. Provided by ARS Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory. United States, CA.
context_page_description: Orcuttia is a genus of grass in the family Poaceae. Plants grow up to 20 cm tall, usually with many stems emerging from the base of the plant, and forming a tuft. The spikelets are several-flowered, with reduced upper florets. The lemma tips have between two and five teeth.
  Described in 1886, the genus contains five species native to California and Baja California. All plants are associated with vernal pools. Plants sprout when the pools are full but grow and flower after the pool bed has dried. These annual grasses, known generally as Orcutt grass, are all rare and federally protected in the United States.
context_section_description: Orcuttia species are annual plants with fibrous roots, and, in maturity, they produce leaves that are sticky and aromatic (similar to lemon). The odour may deter predation by insects and rodents, and the sticky coating may reduce desiccation. Elongated juvenile leaves are produced before the culm (stems). The culms have a pithy interior, and stand erect to ascending (rising upwards) to decumbent (lying along the ground with the tip ascending), and occasionally become prostrate (lying trailing along the ground). The leaves feature little or no differentiation into sheath and blade; as the grass dries, the blade portion either remains flat or rolls inward. The plants grow in tufts, with culms reaching a height of up to 20 cm (7.9 in), in the case of O. pilosa.
  The inflorescence is spike-like, exserted (projecting beyond) at maturity, and the spikelets are distichous, meaning they are arranged in two opposite rows. The spikelets comprise several flowers and are laterally flattened, with glumes that have between 2 and 5 irregular teeth. There are 4–40 florets, which break above the glumes, and, in maturity, between the florets. The lemmas are prominently 5-nerved (referring to a strand of vascular and supporting tissue in a leaf or similar structure); these end in prominent teeth that are 1/3 to 1/2 or more the length of the lemma. Each individual tooth is flanked on either side of the strong central nerve by an additional weaker nerve, which extends about halfway to the base of the lemma. The palea (scales) are well-developed, and have 2 nerves; there are no lodicules. There are three white or pinkish anthers, which are borne on long, slender, ribbon-like filaments at anthesis. The pistil has two elongate filament-like styles that originate from the apex of the ovary; these are stigma-like for 1/3 to 1/2 of their length, and the stigmatic hairs are short and sparse. The caryopsis (a dry one-seeded fruit in which the ovary wall is united with the seed coat) is oblong to elliptical, and slightly flattened.
caption: Orcuttia californica spikelet
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