''Eriocoma arida'' is a species of

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

known by the common name Mormon needlegrass. It is native to the southwestern United States and northeastern Mexico.

Description

''Eriocoma arida'' is a tuft-forming 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 perennia ...

without

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

s. The bunches of stems reach a maximum height of around . The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a panicle often partly enfolded in the narrow sheath of the uppermost leaf. The spikelets have hairlike awns long.

Range and habitat

''Eriocoma arida'' ranges across the southwestern United States, from California's

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

through Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico to Texas, and in the states of Nuevo León and Hidalgo in northeastern Mexico. It is a resident of high desert scrub and woodland habitat at some elevation.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Achnatherum aridum''USDA Plants Profile; Achnatherum aridum''Achnatherum aridum'' - Photo gallery
arida Bunchgrasses of North America Grasses of Mexico Grasses of the United States Native grasses of California Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of New Mexico Flora of Arizona Flora of Colorado Flora of Utah Natural history of the Mojave Desert Plants described in 1895 Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Pooideae-stub