Common Name: slender hairgrass

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Graminoid

General: Fine textured, densely clumped perennial cool season grass 40-100 cm tall with a narrow panicle 5-25 cm long.

Vegetative: Blades hair-like, 1-2 mm wide, 7-30 cm long, rolled inward, forming a basal tuft; stems 40-100 cm tall; ligules 2-8 mm long.

Inflorescence: Panicle narrow with slender branches erect or nodding, 5-30 cm long, 1 cm wide, light green to purple in color; spikelets 3-6 mm long, narrow, v-shaped, close to branches; generally 2 florets; glumes 3-5 mm, 3-veined; lemmas 2-4 mm, smooth, shiny, weekly toothed at tip, with awns 1-5 mm long, straight to slightly bent, attached near middle of the lemma; anthers <1 mm long.

Ecology: Found in wet meadows, open forests, and along streams and coastal prairies; flowers June-September.

Distribution: Found in all western states except Colorado.

Notes: Provides good forage for livestock, deer, and elk prior to maturity. Is differentiated from D. cespitosa by being shorter, finer, and less robust, and by having less open panicles and narrower leaves.

Ethnobotany: Used to control erosion along disturbed sites and waterways.

Etymology: Deschampsia is named after the French botanist Louis Auguste Deschamps, who lived from 1766-1842, while elongata means elongated, referring to its slender panicle and fine leaves.

Editor: LKearsley, 2012