''Hilaria jamesii'' (formerly ''Pleuraphis jamesii'') 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 ...

known by the common name James' galleta.

Range and habitat

It is native to the

southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

, where it is widespread in scrub,

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

, and

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

habitat. It is tolerant of arid environments such as desert floors. It is common in the northern

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

.Mojave Desert Wildflowers, Pam Mackay, 2nd Ed. 2013, p. 285

Growth pattern

It is a

rhizomatous In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

perennial grass producing bunches of erect stems about 1 mm wide and up to about 60 cm in maximum height. The woody rhizome is shallow, spreading just under the soil surface, but it may reach 6 ft in length and when dense, helps the grass form a

sod Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricult ...

.US Forest Service Fire Ecology
/ref> Its stems are not fuzzy like those of its relative, '' Hilaria rigida''.

Flowers

The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a series of hairy, rectangular spikelets.

Fruit

The grass produces relatively little viable seed and spreads mostly via its rhizome.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfileGrass Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
Chloridoideae Grasses of Mexico Grasses of the United States Native grasses of California Native grasses of the Great Plains region Native grasses of Nebraska Native grasses of Oklahoma Native grasses of Texas Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Great Basin Flora of Nevada Flora of New Mexico Flora of Wyoming Natural history of the Mojave Desert Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Chloridoideae-stub