Common Name: prairie Junegrass

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Graminoid

General: Perennial bunchgrass, 25-70 cm tall; mostly glabrous, pubescent with short-grayish hairs below the panicles and near the nodes.

Vegetative: Blades mostly basal, 1-4 mm wide, upper surface of the blades prominently ribbed; sheath rounded on back or somewhat keeled, with rough, firm, stiff hairs; ligule 1-2 mm long, truncate to irregularly toothed-ciliate, whitish, thin and translucent, often w

Inflorescence: Panicle narrow, contracted, appears like a dense aggregation of spikelets; spikelets laterally compressed, 4-5 mm long, with 2 or 3 florets; disarticulation above the glumes; lower glume lance-ovate; upper glume obovate, shorter than lowest lemma, with scarious margins; lemma barely nerved, awnless, with broad translucent margins; palea entirely translucent, as long as lemma.

Ecology: Found on rocky slopes, woodlands and open forests, pine woods from 4,000-9,000 ft (1219-2743 m); flowers May-Sept.

Distribution: Western, central, and midwestern US, through adjacent CAN to AK.

Ethnobotany: Seeds used as a grain in bread and porridge; used ceremonially in the Sun Dance; straw added to adobe and bundles used as brooms.

Etymology: Koeleria is named for German botanist L. Koeler (1765-1807), while macrantha is Latin for large-flowered.

Synonyms: Koeleria macrantha, K. cristata, K. cristata var. longifolia, K. cristata var. pinetorum, K. gracilis, K. nitida, K. pyramidata, K. yukonensis

Editor: SBuckley 2010, AHazelton 2015