Origin: Native   Season: Warm Habitat Description: Found in periodically wet soils in grasslands; disturbed areas; along stream banks, ditches, roadsides, pastures. Plant Communities:Semidesert Grasslands, Riparian, Disturbed Areas Elevation: 1000 - 6000 feet
General Description
Desc:
Bluish-green stoloniferous and sometimes rhizomatous, up to 2-1/2 feet tall grass that forms dense stands. Stems are wiry and smooth with swollen and densely hairy nodes. Identification Notes: Stolons to 3 feet, stems to 2-1/2 feet, collars densely hairy. Blades bluish-green flat or involute, prominent white mid-vein. Seedhead narrow; short appressed branches; spikelets rounded, 2-flowered; glumes similar in length; glumes,lemma not hairy. Grass Type: Perennial mat or sod-forming Rhizomes: Y Stolons: Y 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: May - Oct Flower Characteristics
Number of Flowers per Spikelet: Multi-flowered Spikelets One-sided: N Awns: Absent Three Awns: N Awns Bent: N Flower and Seedhead Notes: Seedhead is narrow and contracted with short simple, appressed branches. Spikelets are 2-flowered with one fertile floret. Spikelets are wrapped in bracts with vertical green veins, the purple stigmas usually peeking out before seeds ripen.
Vegetative Charcteristics
Blade Hairy:
N
Blade with White Margins:
N
Blade Cross section:
Flat or involute
Blade Notes:
Blades are 2 to 8 inches long, flat or loosely inrolled and light bluish-green in color. The mid-vein is white and prominent.
Sheath Hairy:
Y
Tuft of Hairs at top of Sheath or Collar:
N
Ligules:
Membranous Auricles (Ear-like lobes at collar area:
N
Forage Value:
Fair to good for wildlife and livestock. Quail and doves eat the seed in the fall and early winter.
Arizona Cooperative Extension
Yavapai County
840 Rodeo Dr #C
Prescott, AZ 86305
(928) 445-6590