Scientific Family
Poaceae
Synonyms
Muhlenbergia debilis
Plant type
Grasses
Riparian
No
Grass Description
Origin
Native
Season
Cool
Grows on sandy slopes and drainages, cliffs, rock outcrops, and disturbed roadsides.
Plant Community
Interior Chaparral
Disturbed Areas
Low elevation
1000
High elevation
5000
General Description
Soft and delicate annual grass with weak erect or spreading stems 4 to 27 inches long, much-branched at lower nodes, often purplish, often growing through other plants.
Annual with freely ascending or spreading branches; blades flat to involute; glumes blunt, 1-nerved, exceeded by florets; seedhead narrow, 5 to 20 cm long; self-pollinating spikelets in axils of lower blades; lemmas awned, awns up to 1 inch long.
Grass type
Annual
Rhizomes
No
Stolons
No
Clump Diameter 2 ft or more
No
Bushy - highly branched
No
Height with Seedheads
24 inches or more
Seedhead Structure
Branched - contracted
Seedhead droops
No
First bloom month
February
Last bloom month
May
Flower Characteristics
Flowers per Spikelet
One-flowered
Spikelets One-Sided
No
Awns
1/4 inch to 1 inch
Three Awns
No
Awns bent
No
Flower and Seedhead Notes
Seedheads are up to 5-1/2 inches long, not dense, often purplish. Branches are ascending or diverging up to 80° from the axis and are spikelet-bearing to the base. Spikelets are borne singly on short stalks.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blade is hairy
Yes
Blade margins white
No
Blade cross-section
Flat
Involute – rolled inward on upper surface
Blades are rough, 1 to 4 inches long, 1/8 inch wide, flat or loosely involute, and covered with short stiff appressed hairs.
Sheath is hairy
Yes
Tufts of hair top of sheath or collar
No
Ligule
Membranous
Auricles
No
Fair to good.