Scientific Family
Poaceae
Plant type
Grasses
Riparian
No
Grass Description
Origin
Native
Season
Warm
Grows on rocky slopes, gravelly flats and rocky outcrops; particularly in limestone soils in grasslands, pinyon-juniper woodlands, and pine-oak woodland.
Plant Community
Pinyon Juniper Woodlands
Montane Conifer Forest
Interior Chaparral
Grasslands
Low elevation
5000
High elevation
8000
General Description
This grass grows in clumps or tufts, with stems 1 to 8 inches long. Stems may be erect or trailing and sometimes root at the nodes. Leaves are mostly basal, below the middle of the stems.
Spikelets usually in subsessile-stemmed pairs; lower glumes 2-veined, minutely to deeply bifid or with short awns; upper glumes 1-veined or veinless, irregularly notched or awned;Â glumes shorter than the lemmas; lemma awns 3/8 to 3/4 inch long.
Grass type
Annual
Rhizomes
No
Stolons
No
Clump Diameter 2 ft or more
No
Bushy - highly branched
No
Height with Seedheads
Less than 12 inches
Seedhead Structure
Branched - contracted
Seedhead droops
No
First bloom month
August
Last bloom month
October
Flower Characteristics
Flowers per Spikelet
One-flowered
Spikelets One-Sided
No
Awns
Less than 1/4 inch
Three Awns
No
Awns bent
No
Flower and Seedhead Notes
Seedhead is 1 to 4 inches high bearing laterally compressed spikelets. Seedhead may be partially hidden in leaf sheaths. Spikelets have 1 fertile floret, usually in subsessile-stemmed pairs.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blade is hairy
Yes
Blade margins white
Yes
Blade cross-section
Flat
Involute – rolled inward on upper surface
Blades are 1/2 to 2 inches long and 1/8 inch wide, flat to involute, and covered with fine stiff hairs. Mid-veins and margins are thickened and whitish in color. Leaf blades have auricles.
Sheath is hairy
No
Tufts of hair top of sheath or collar
No
Ligule
Membranous
Auricles
No
Fair to good.