Grass Description
Mostly in ponderosa pine or spruce forests and grassy meadows. May occasionally occur at elevations below 6000.
General Description
Densely tufted grass with long stem ending in a slightly spreading delicate seedhead with small awnless seeds.
Leaf blades 1/16 inch wide, 6 inches long, rolled inward, crowed at the base, rough on the margins; open, grayish, narrow, branched, ascending seedhead; pedicels hair-like, glumes shorter than the abruptly pointed, 3-nerved densely hairy lemma.
Flower Characteristics
Seedhead 1 to 10 inches long, to 4 inches wide; branches ascending; pedicels 1/8 to 1/2 inch, straight or bent alternately in alternate directions. Lemma with long soft hairs, 3 nerved and abruptly pointed. Glumes a little shorter than the lemma.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blades flat to involute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, sometimes scabrous, adaxial surfaces shortly pubescent, 2 to 6 inches long, 1/8 inch wide.
Very good. One of the best forage grasses in timbered areas. Although not as palatable as blue grama, it is considerably more palatable than mountain muhly with which it frequently grows.