AVENEAE . 89 



The Oats Grasses (Tribe VI Aveneae), the tribe of 

 grasses to which the cultivated Oats belong, is not well rep- 

 resented in New Mexico, there being but ten species so far 

 collected in the State and one of these is an introduced weed. 

 Oats (Avena sativa) is cultivated to considerabe extent at 

 various places in the higher mountains in the cooler open 

 valleys or parks where a small amount of irrigation water is 

 available or where the summer rains are sufficiently abundant 

 to mature a crop. Wild Oats* (Avena fatua) has been 

 introduced in a number of places as a weed in grain fields 

 and has become thoroughly established in several places. 

 It will no doubt continue to spread in the 

 cooler cultivated areas. The genus Deschampsia sometimes 

 called Hair Grass is represented by two unimportant species 

 found only in the higher mountains. One of these, D. 

 caespitosa, is not uncommon at moderately high levels in the 

 heavily timbered areas where it finds the soil and climatic 

 condition to which it is adapted and where it adds a small 

 amount to the summer forage crop. Two relatively unim- 

 portant species of the genus Trisetum, sometimes called 

 False Oats, also occur sparingly in the high mountains in 

 the northern part of the State where they are of little im- 

 portance adding very little to the crop of summer forage 

 found in the timbered areas of the higher mountains. A fourth 

 genus ( Danthonia) sometimes called Wild Oats Grass 

 (though this name is not in use in this region) is represented 

 by three species found in the mountains from 

 near timber-line downward into the zone of the pine timber. 

 None of the species are common or in any way important: 

 they have mostly been collected in New Mexico only a very 

 few times. 



• This Is a real "Wild Oats' and belongs with the ordinary culti- 

 vated species. of oats which it resembles. It is not any one of the 

 grasses that are frequently called "Wild Oats" in the mountains of this 

 State, which are really Brome Grasses. 



