Oryzopsis hymenoides (Roem and Schult.) Indian Ricegrass Habit: Densely tufted perennial. Culms: 30-60 cm. tall, erect, rigid, simple or nearly so. Blades: 15-40 cm. long, 2 mm. wide or less, flat or mostly involute, stiff, smooth or somewhat scabrous above, the numerous blades of the sterile shoots long. Sheaths: The upper shorter than the internodes, overlapping below, smooth or slightly scabrous. Ligule: 3-4 mm. long or more, membranous. Inflorescence: Panicle diffuse, 7-15 cm. long or more, from the upper 1-3 sheaths, greenish, becoming pale, the many slender branches widely and stiffly spreading, the branchlets flexuous, dichotomous, all spreading, bearing a spikelet on a long capillary pedicel. Spikelets: 6-8 mm. long, 1-flowered, broad, rachilla disarticulating above the glumes. Glumes: Subequal, 6-8 mm. long, 3-5-nerved, with spreading tips, ovate, acuminate, glabrous or puberulent, thin and papery. Lemmas: Exclusive of awn about 3 mm. long, broad, indurate, convolute, with a short and obtuse callus at the base, ending in a terminal, early deciduous, mostly straight but twisted awn, about 4 mm. long, nearly black when mature, densely long-pilose, with white hairs 3 mm. long. Palea: Enclosed by the inrolled edges of the lemma. Fruit: Grain enclosed within the lemma and palea. Habitat: Sandy or rocky deserts and plains. May. Kansas Range: Northwest fourth. Use: Forage grass, but scarce. Synonyms: Achnatherum hymenoides (Roemer & J.A. Schultes) Barkworth