Grass Description
Found on rocky slopes, open plains, and shaded openings in woods, often on rocky soils.
General Description
Tufted bunchgrass, numerous 10 to 24 inch tall erect, leafy based seedheads with up to 4 comb-like branches, branch tips exceeding the spikelets.
Tufted erect perennial, sometimes stoloniferous. Stems and sheath hairy. Ligule a fringe of hairs. Leaves basal, mostly flat, margins hairy at bases. Seedheads of up to 4 branches of one-sided spikelets, branch tips extend beyond the spikelets.
Flower Characteristics
Seedhead typically has 2, sometimes 3 or 4 hairy comb-like branches with up to 50 one-sided spikelets. The spikelet branches extend beyond the spikelets as a naked point. Spikelets are green to dark purple; glumes are awn-tipped.
Vegetative Characteristics
Leaves are mostly basal, <1/8 inch wide, 1 to 5 inches long, and flat to inrolled with hairs often present on both surfaces, usually also present on the bases of the margins.
Very good, one of the most important Arizona range grasses.