Grass Description
Found on dry slopes, rocky hillsides and often in disturbed areas.
General Description
Annual grass with solitary or loosely tufted stems 6 to 30 inches long. Stems may be erect or trailing, sometimes rooting at the nodes. Stems are usually smooth but may be slightly hairy.
Annual; slender, weak, often abruptly bent stems; seedhead branches appressed to erect; spikelets solitary, 1 to 8 flowered, all flowers fertile; lower glumes 1/2 to 3/4 length of upper glume; lemma awns up to 1/2 inch long; paleas usually exceed lemmas.
Flower Characteristics
Seedhead is up to 9 inches long and has 2 to 10 drooping, pendulous, widely spreading branches. Spikelets have 3 to 7 bisexual florets that are laterally compressed and often purplish in color.
Vegetative Characteristics
Leaf blades are less than 4 inches long and 1/10 inch wide. Leaf blades are smooth and mostly flat but the blade margins may be folded or rolled inward.
Forage value is generally low because this grass usually does not stay green very long.