Scribner Needlegrass

Stipa scribneri Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club 11: 12.S. 1884
Culms erect, glabrous, sometimes puberulent below the nodes, 30-70 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous, villous at the throat; ligule less than 1 mm. long; blades flat, involute toward the tip or sometimes involute to base, glabrous, scaberulous on the upper surface, 15-25 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide; panicle narrow, rather compactly flowered, 10-25 cm. long, pubescent at the nodes, the branches fascicled, appressed, some short and some as much as 5 cm. long, the shorter ones Ijearing 1 or 2 spikelets, the longer ones naked at base and bearing several spikelets; glumes 10-15 mm. long, about equal or the first longer, pale, long-acuminate, scaberulous, 3-nerved; lemma about 8 mm. long, pale, the callus I mm. long, barbed with tawny hairs, the body narrow-fusiform, villous, the hairs white, on the lower part short and appressed, on the upper part ascending, as much as 2 mm. long, more dense at the summit; awn 1+-20 cm. long, twice geniculate, scabrous, twisted to the second bend, the first and second segments 3-5 mm. each, the third straight.
Type loc.i.ity: Santa Fe. New Mexico.
Distribution Mesas and rockv slopes. Colorado, Utah. New Mexico, and Arizona.

Pe rennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath hairy at summit, throat, or collar, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicel late, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma awn twisted, spirally coiled at base, like a corkscrew, Lemma awn twice geniculate, bent twice, Lemma margins inrolled, tightly covering palea and caryopsis, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs shorter tha n lemma, Lemma surface pilose, setose or bristly, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea shorter than lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.