One seed with three awns attached |
General: Purple Threeawn (Aristida purpurea) is a fairly common, upright grass that grows in individual clumps (bunches) in the deserts around Las Vegas. Purple Threeawn is a spindly bunchgrass that grows to about 18-inches tall from a small clump and has seeds held closely pressed against the stems. The flowers tend to have a purple-colored cast, and when ripe, the seeds each have three awns.
Purple Threeawn is a fairly common component of vegetation associations in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zones, especially in sandy and gravely areas. |