Grass Description
Steep rocky canyon slopes, oak woodlands, forest openings.
General Description
Tufted or shortly rhizomatous perennial grass, 12 to 30 inches tall. Smooth waxy stems often reclining on the ground with the tips ascending but not rooting or branching at the lower nodes, reddish to sometimes purplish in color.
Perennial, up to 3 feet; blades 7 inches long, flat or folded; ligule 1/16 inch membrane; seedhead a spike of paired spikelets, subtended by a leaf; first spikelet sessile, 2-flowered with a 1 inch once bent awn; second spikelet stemmed, male, awnless.
Flower Characteristics
Seedhead is a single stalk projecting from the uppermost leaf sheath. Spikelets are in pairs of one sessile (no stalk) and fertile and one pediceled (stalked) and sterile. Spikelets are equal in length.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blades are 2-1/2 to 6-1/2 inches long and threadlike. Blades are flat or folded inward(involute). Leaf blades are smooth and covered with a waxy blue-green or gray coating.
An excellent forage grass.