Grass Description
Rolling hills and rocky canyon slopes, mostly on riverbanks and moist mountain slopes; often in woodlands and pine forests.
General Description
A tall leafy grass with erect stems and bulbous swellings at the base, 20 to 48 inches tall. Seedheads well exerted above blades and pyramidal.
Tufted perennial with short knotty rhizomes, stems thickened, bulbous at the base. Seedhead open, loose and pyramidal, purple in the sun, spikelets rounded and 2-flowered. First glume much shorter than second. Sheaths hairy at the collar.
Flower Characteristics
Seedhead 4 to 16 inches long, lower branches spreading, branchlets and spikelet stems appressed. Spikelets 2-flowered, one sterile, one fertile. Glumes unequal, 1st glume shorter. Lemma tapers to a point.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blades flat and thin, up to 24 inches long. Blades may be smooth or slightly hairy.
Fair to poor. Stems become very woody when mature.