Publication: Taxon 19(1): 166.1980. 1980.

Origin: Native

Herbarium search: CPNWH

Notes: FNA24: "Elymus albicans grows primarily in the central Rocky Mountains and the western portion of the Great Plains. It tends to grow in shallow, rocky soils on wooded or sagebrush-covered slopes, rather than in deep loams. It is derived from hybrids between Pseudoroegneria spicata and E. lanceolatus. In practice, it is probably restricted to hybrids involving the awned variant of Pseudoroegneria spicata, because the hybrid origin of those involving the unawned variant would probably not be recognized.

Populations of E. albicans differ in their reproductive abilities (Dewey 1970). In some, most plants yield good seed; in others, most plants are sterile. Some of the fertile populations appear to be self-perpetuating; others appear to consist of recent hybrids and some backcrosses. Although treated here as a species, E. albicans could equally well be treated as a hybrid, Elymus ×albicans. Plants with glabrous lemmas, presumed to be derived from crosses with glabrous individuals of E. lanceolatus, have sometimes been treated as a distinct taxon, e.g., Agropyron albicans var. griffithsii (Scribn. & J.G. Sm.) Beetle or A. griffithsii Scribn. & J.G. Sm.; they are not formally recognized here."

Last updated 12/4/2023 by David Giblin.