114 FESTUCEAE 



Blue Grass and Its Relatives (Tribe VIII 



Festuceae) constitute one of the largest groups and contains 

 some very important grasses, such as the Alutton Grass, 

 Blue Grass, the Fescues and the Brome (irasses. Salt Grass 

 and Sclcropogon hrcvifol'nis, sometimes improperly called 

 Needle Grass, also belong to this tribe and are quite important 

 in parts of our State. The tribe is represented by 17 genera 

 and 68 species and varieties in New Mexico, nearly all of 

 which are indigenous species. In the luimid region it is 

 even more important as a tribe producing valuable economic 

 species than it is in this Western region. The New Mexican 

 species are as follows. 



PappopJwrum ivrightii, for which we have heard no 

 common name, is a grass of the rocky hillsides and mesas of 

 the lower southern part of the State. Tt is important merely 

 as a constitutent of a grass flora that will endure extreme 

 drought and produce a scanty crop of forage where little or 

 nothing else will grow. 



Scleropogon brez'if alius, as has been said, is locally 

 called Needle Grass but is not related closely to the three- 

 awned needle grasses of the genus Aristida and we wish to 

 suggest that this grass be called Fai..se Needle Grass. This 

 little grass is a very im])ortant one in t\\'o ways on the low 

 plains of the southern end r)f the State. Whether it repro- 

 duces readily by seed or not we cannot say. Seeds planted 

 by us did not germinate, but they may have been too old or not 

 properly planted. Further experimentation is necessary to 

 answer the question. But the grass spreads rather rapidly by 

 runners, especially on hue windblown soils. It is not apt to 

 grow on sandy or gra\elly soils, but once started on bare flats 

 of fine loess soils there seems to lie no degree of heat or 

 dryness which will kill it, and when such areas are flooded — 

 as they frequently are by summer rains and flood waters — 

 this little grass grows raj^idly and the patches spread in all 

 directions. 11ie grass is \vA \ery valuable forage since stock 

 do \\n{ cal it readily nor willinglv, but it is the only perennial 



