Description ²

An uncommon grass to 1.5 meters tall. There are three known colonies in the northern preserve, and several smaller groups and individuals along Tom's Thumb and Lookout trails, and along Granite Mountain Loop trail. Scattered individuals elsewhere are to be expected. Leaves are short, only 10 to 15 cm long and 2 to 7 mm wide. The yellow-brown foliage on old plants bears some resemblance to old buffel grass foliage. Flowers are dark brown, as are young seeds. The long awn twists at the base as it matures, but is a very dark color as compared with other twisted-awn species. The twisted awn will relax when wet; alternating twisting and relaxing actions help to drill the sharp-pointed seed into the soil. Occasionally a twisting awn will wrap itself and a clump of other seeds around the flower stalk. The bare flower stalk is often topped with a small spindle-like structure.

SEINet description

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Steve Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Steve Jones
2. (c) Steve Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• African Plants - a photo guide
• Atlas of Living Australia
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• Calflora
• CalPhotos
• eFloras.org
• Flora of North America (beta)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• Jepson eFlora
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• USDA PLANTS database
• World Flora Online

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