Scientific Family
Poaceae
Synonyms
Secale montanum, Secale strictum
Plant type
Grasses
Riparian
No
Grass Description
Origin
Introduced
Season
Cool
Cultivated, but often escapes to roadsides and waste spaces.
Plant Community
Disturbed Areas
Low elevation
4000
High elevation
7000
General Description
Plants 20 to 48 inches.
Erect often over 2 feet tall, annual grass with flat blades and dense terminal seedheads. Seedheads are a spike with long awns; solitary spikelets; narrow rigid glumes with slender points.
Grass type
Annual
Rhizomes
No
Stolons
No
Clump Diameter 2 ft or more
No
Bushy - highly branched
Yes
Height with Seedheads
Greater than 36 inches
Seedhead Structure
Unbranched
Seedhead droops
Yes
First bloom month
May
Last bloom month
August
Flower Characteristics
Flowers per Spikelet
Multi-flowered
Spikelets One-Sided
No
Awns
Greater than 1 inch
Three Awns
Yes
Awns bent
No
Flower and Seedhead Notes
Seedhead is terminal and slightly flattened. Spikelets are mostly 2-flowered. Lemmas have a fringe of hairs on the margin of the keel and terminate in an awn. Seedhead nods when mature.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blade is hairy
No
Blade margins white
No
Blade cross-section
Flat
Involute – rolled inward on upper surface
Leaves flat to involute and usually smooth or possibly rough on the top side.
Sheath is hairy
No
Tufts of hair top of sheath or collar
Yes
Ligule
Membranous
Auricles
No
Low to minor usage as forage, but many times used as cover.