Grass Description
Found along roadsides, drainages, and gravelly slopes in desert grasslands.
General Description
Coarse bunchgrass up to 5 feet tall with erect to spreading stems. Stem nodes are densely hairy. Leaves are mostly basal and clasp the stems. When the plant dries it cures to a reddish-brown color.
Perennial with stout erect stems that are densely hairy at the nodes. Sheaths sparsely hairy at the collar, leaves flat. Seedheads partially enclosed in sheaths. Spikelets in pairs, dorsally compressed. Lemma has a twisted awn up to 1-1/4 inch long.
Flower Characteristics
Seedhead stems partially enclosed at the base by sheaths. Spikelets in pairs, the sessile spikelet with 2 florets and the pedicillate spikelet sterile. Upper lemma of sessile spikelet is tipped with a twisted awn 1-1/4 inch long.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blades 8 to 12 inches long, <1/2 inch wide. Leaf blades are flat and smooth.
Fair. Palatability is highest when foliage is green and young and decreases with drying and age.