Stipagrostis plumosa (L.) Munro ex T. Anderson

A desert grass of great value not only as a fodder but also by virtue of its ability to act as a sand-binder. Plants with glabrous basal sheaths and shorter than usual awns have been separated as var. brachypoda, but this variety does not appear to be of much taxonomic consequence.

Densely caespitose perennial, up to 40 cm high; lowest sheaths and internodes covered with a thick flocculent fugacious wool. Leaf-blades filiform, rolled, 4-12 cm long, smooth, pungent, curved, sometimes forming a semi-circle or complete circle. Panicle 6-15 cm long, ± contracted. Spikelets pallid; glumes glabrous, unequal, -the lower 9-14 mm long, the upper 11-15 mm long; lemma 2.5-4 mm long, smooth, gradually passing into the awn; callus 1-1.7 mm long, acute, bearded, the hairs increasing in length upward; column of awn 5-10(15) mm long, glabrous; central branch of the awn 2.5-6 cm long, plumose in the upper two-thirds but with an excurrent naked tip; lateral branches naked, up to 25 mm long.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Mediterranean region and the Middle East.

Fl.& Fr. Per.: throughout much of the year.