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