Flower:

Loose, erect to nodding, branching cluster at the top of the stem, up to 10 inches long, with 1 or 2 branches per node. Branches are 1 to 4 inches long, initially appressed becoming ascending to widely spreading, with 2 to 5 spikelets (flower clusters) per branch. Spikelets are loosely overlapping at the tip of a branch, short-stalked, narrowly lance-elliptic in outline and have a single floret.

At the base of a spikelet is a pair of bracts (glumes), both about equal in size and shape, hairless, awnless, obscurely 5 to 7-veined (more prominent when dry), oblong-elliptic with a pointed tip, 6 to 8 mm (to 1/3 inch) long and as long as the spikelet. Florets are surrounded by a pair of bracts (lemma and palea), both leathery, variously hairy and turning blackish with maturity, the lemma narrowly elliptic, the body 4.5 to 8 mm long tapering to a slightly twisted awn 10 to 25 mm (3/8 to ~1 inch) long; the palea is about as long as the lemma and 2-veined.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are 4 to 10 inches long, 8 to 16 mm (1/3 to 2/3 inch) wide, lance-linear, flat, thin and arching, with surfaces sparsely hairy to rough-textured. The lowest leaves are reduced to sheaths with a blade less than 1 inch long.

The sheath is smooth to rough-textured, sometimes minutely hairy at the tip near the edges. The ligule (membrane where the leaf joins the sheath) is a fringe of hairs .5 mm long or less. Nodes are densely short-hairy. Stems are unbranched, erect to ascending, hairless except minutely hairy near the nodes, multiple from the base and forming loose clumps from short, knotty rhizomes.

Fruit:

Spikelets are dull green to light brown at maturity, the blackish florets shedding individually as each grain matures, leaving the glumes behind on the stalk. Grains (seeds) are 5 to 6 mm long with an abrupt taper to a beak at the tip.

Notes:

Black-fruited Rice Grass, also known by synonyms Piptatherum racemosum and Oryzopsis racemosa, is a common woodland species found in more than half of Minnesota. It is distinguished from all other grasses by the single-flowered spikelets, hairless glumes as long as the spikelet, blackish lemmas with long awns, bladeless lower sheaths, and ligules of a very short fringe of hairs. The overall form is similar to Brachyelytrum species, which have tiny glumes, more distinctly veined lemmas, shorter and stiffer leaves with distinct cross partitions on the lateral, parallel veins.