Scientific Family
Poaceae
Synonyms
Sporobolus confusus var. aberrans
Plant type
Grasses
Riparian
Yes
Grass Description
Origin
Native
Season
Warm
Sandy or gravelly hillsides, rocky slopes, and canyon bottoms; often in low lying depressions; pine forests, pinyon-juniper woodlands, grasslands, and riparian woodlands.
Plant Community
Riparian
Pinyon Juniper Woodlands
Montane Conifer Forest
Grasslands
Low elevation
3400
High elevation
7000
Similar species
Muhlenbergia fragilis, Muhlenbergia minutissima
General Description
Wispy annual growing up to 20 inches tall.
Annual, 4 to 20 inches, highly branched at lower nodes. Spikelet stems elongate and sinuous, often tangled. M. minutissima spikelet stems are elongate, hair-like, straight. M. fragilis spikelet stems are short, not hair-like.
Grass type
Annual
Rhizomes
No
Stolons
No
Clump Diameter 2 ft or more
No
Bushy - highly branched
No
Height with Seedheads
12 inches or more
Seedhead Structure
Branched - open and spreading
Seedhead droops
No
First bloom month
August
Last bloom month
October
Flower Characteristics
Flowers per Spikelet
One-flowered
Spikelets One-Sided
No
Awns
Absent
Three Awns
No
Awns bent
No
Flower and Seedhead Notes
Seedheads 4 to 10 inches, 1 to 3 inches wide; primary branches often thread-like, stalk to 1/4 inch, usually curved with spikelets, greenish and often mottled with purple.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blade is hairy
Yes
Blade margins white
No
Blade cross-section
Flat
Blades 3/4 to 3-1/2 inches long, to 1/16 inch wide, flat, sometimes rolled inward, rough underside, clothed with short soft hairs or down to somewhat densely hairy with long, soft hairs on top of leaf, midveins prominent on underside of leaf.
Sheath is hairy
No
Tufts of hair top of sheath or collar
No
Ligule
Membranous
Auricles
No
Not available.