Aristida purpurea fruits with awns 2003-07-03

''Aristida purpurea'' is a species of

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

native to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

which is known by the common name purple three-awn.

Distribution

This grass is fairly widespread and can be found across the western two thirds of the United States, much of southern Canada and parts of northern Mexico. It is most abundant on the plains.

Description

This is a perennial

bunchgrass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...

, growing erect to under a meter-3 feet in height, and the flower

glumes In botany, a glume is a bract (leaf-like structure) below a spikelet in the inflorescence (flower cluster) of grasses (Poaceae) or the flowers of sedges (Cyperaceae). There are two other types of bracts in the spikelets of grasses: the lemma and ...

often assumes a light brown to reddish-purple color. There are several varieties with overlapping geographical ranges. This is not considered to be a good graze for livestock because the awns are sharp and the protein content of the grass is low.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Aristida purpurea'' (Purple three awn) Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Aristida purpurea''
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110611124254/http://herbarium.usu.edu/webmanual/info2.asp?name=Aristida_purpurea&type=treatment Utah State University Herbarium, Grass Manual Treatmentbr>UC CalPhotos gallery of ''Aristida purpurea'' (purple threeawn)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4790974 purpurea Bunchgrasses of North America Grasses of Canada Grasses of Mexico Grasses of the United States Native grasses of the Great Plains region Native grasses of California Native grasses of Oklahoma Native grasses of Texas Flora of Northeastern Mexico Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of the United States Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of the South-Central United States Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Chihuahuan Desert Flora of the Great Basin Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Colorado Desert Flora of the Mexican Plateau Natural history of the Mojave Desert Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Plants described in 1835 Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants