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 Plant - fall Courthouse Rock, SedonaMax Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Plant - summer Verde Valley W. of SedonaMax Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Seedheads Courthouse Rock, SedonaMax Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Seedheads Courthouse Rock, SedonaMax Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Seedheads Verde Valley W. of SedonaMax Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) | |
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Origin: Native Season: Warm
Habitat Description: Sandy hills and in rocky canyons. Considered a weed, being able to establish itself in newly disturbed and poor soils.
Plant Communities:Interior Chaparral, Semidesert Grasslands, Pinyon Juniper Woodland, Disturbed Areas
Elevation: 1000 - 5500 feet
Desc:
Tall perennial usually branching well above the base, often a few long hairs at the leaf collar. Unique seedhead with long wiry twisted, tangled and bent awns.
Identification Notes: A coarse, perennial bunchgrass; bright green, curing to a distinctive orange-brown. Blades broad creased down the middle, and clasping the flattened stem at the base. Seedheads spikelike; firm rounded glumes. Seeds sharp pointed with a long, coarse awn.
Grass Type: Perennial bunchgrass Rhizomes: N Stolons: N
Large Dense Clump (> 2 feet): N Bushy (highly branched): N
Height with Seedheads: 24 to 36 inches
Seedhead Structure: Branched - contracted Seedhead Droops: N
Flowering Period: Jun - Sep
Number of Flowers per Spikelet: One-flowered Spikelets One-sided: N
Awns: Greater than 1 inch Three Awns: N Awns Bent: Y
Flower and Seedhead Notes: Seedhead stems brown to reddish-brown with 12 to 22 brown to reddish brown sessile and stemmed spikelet pairs. Spikelets have awnless staminate and awned pistillate spikelets. Awns are 2 to 5 inches long, bent and flexuous and frequently tangled.
Blade Hairy:
Y
Blade with White Margins:
N
Blade Cross section:
Flat
Blade Notes:
Blades flat 2 to 8 inches long 1/8 to 1/4 inch wide, midvein prominent, usually hairy on margins and rough.
Sheath Hairy:
N
Tuft of Hairs at top of Sheath or Collar:
Y
Ligules:
Membranous and hairy
Auricles (Ear-like lobes at collar area:
N
Forage Value:
Fair to good for cattle and horses before maturity. A valuable forage grass if continuously grazed so as to prevent the hardened tissue from developing.
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