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 Herbarium specimen ASU Vascular Plant Herbarium, Usage Rights: Attribution-Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC) |  Plant Liz Makings @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Spikelets Liz Makings @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) | | | |
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Origin: Native Season: Cool
Habitat Description: Found on dry rocky slopes, canyon ledges, and along cliffs. When protected from grazing animals it grows in oak-pine and thorn-scrub forests and oak-grama grasslands.
Plant Communities:Desert Scrub, Interior Chaparral, Semidesert Grasslands, Pinyon Juniper Woodland
Elevation: Below 6000 feet
Desc:
Perennial bunchgrass with a thick, hard, rhizomatous base. Stems are fibrous or woody and often persist for more than one season.
Identification Notes: Perennial, woody at the base, freely branching at the middle and upper nodes; rhizomes prominent and scaly; blades rolled inward, less than 1/16 inches long; seedhead stems up to 9 feet tall; seedhead narrow and condensed; spikelets on short stems.
Grass Type: Perennial bunchgrass Rhizomes: Y Stolons: N
Large Dense Clump (> 2 feet): Y Bushy (highly branched): Y
Height with Seedheads: Greater than 36 inches
Seedhead Structure: Branched - contracted Seedhead Droops: Y
Flowering Period: Jan - May
Number of Flowers per Spikelet: One-flowered Spikelets One-sided: N
Awns: 1/4 inch to 1 inch Three Awns: N Awns Bent: N
Flower and Seedhead Notes: Seedhead is often shorter than the leaves; up to 1 inch long, narrow and somewhat bent. Spikelets are 1/8 inch long. Lemma is narrow, hairy at the base and margins, and pale with green nerves.
Blade Hairy:
Y
Blade with White Margins:
N
Blade Cross section:
Flat or involute
Blade Notes:
Branch leaves are less than 1/16 inch wide and 1/4 inch or less long; smooth on the bottom and covered with fine short stiff hairs on top.
Sheath Hairy:
N
Tuft of Hairs at top of Sheath or Collar:
N
Ligules:
Membranous
Auricles (Ear-like lobes at collar area:
N
Forage Value:
Poor.
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