Stipa spartea Trin. Porcupinegrass Habit: Tufted perennial. Culms: 5-120 cm. tall, erect, simple. Blades: 2-30 cm. long, or the basal longer, 3-5 mm. wide, flat, involute in drying, scabrous above. Sheaths: Mostly overlapping. Ligule: Membranous, rather firm, 4-5 mm. long or more. Inflorescence: Panicle finally exserted, narrow, nodding, 10-30 cm. long, branches few, slender, erect, bearing 1 or 2 spikelets towards the tip. Spikelets: Narrow, 1-flowered, flower perfect, disarticulating above the glumes, the articulation oblique, leaving a bearded, sharp-pointed callus attached to the base of the floret. Glumes: 3-4 cm. long, narrow, persistent, keeled, acuminate, rarely awned, exceeding the brownish lemma. Lemmas: Subcylindric, brown, narrow, strongly convolute, rigid, 1.6-2.5 cm. long, the callus about 7 mm. long, pubescent below a line of pubescence on one side above and ciliate at the top, ending in a twice bent awn, 12-20 cm. long, which is spirally twisted below the knee. Palea: Enclosed in the convolute lemma. Fruit: Grain cylindrical, tightly included in the indurated fruiting lemma. Habitat: Prairies. June-August. Kansas Range: East half. Use: A good forage grass, but the awned fruit objectionable at time of maturity. Remarks: The awns are hygroscopic, untwisting in wet weather and twisting in dry weather. Synonyms: Hesperostipa spartea (Trin.) Barkworth