Poverty three-awn, also known as Texas poverty grass, Texas 

 three-awn, and spreading three-awn, is a large, perennial, bunch- 

 grass 1 to 3 feet high with leaves often as long as 6 inches. This 

 grass is commonly found on "poverty" areas dry deserts and foot- 

 hills, but it sometimes grows in the mountains up to about 7,000 

 feet. It ranges from Kansas to southern California and south, 

 through Mexico, into Central America. In Arizona and New 

 Mexico it is largely found on the sandy areas toward the southern 

 portions of the States. Usually it grows in scattered stands mixed 

 with other grasses but sometimes is fairly abundant over localized 

 areas. 



Poverty three-awn is usually considered good forage in the South- 

 west, especially for cattle and horses, while green and succulent, 

 although in some sections it is given a low forage rating. It has 

 two growing seasons when weather conditions are favorable. It 

 makes early spring growth when moisture is abundant although its 

 main growing season comes with the summer rains. If the summer 

 rains come early poverty three-awn remains green for a month or 

 more and produces considerable succulent forage. When, however, 

 summer rains occur very late the seeds develop and mature rapidly 

 and but little usable forage is produced. It becomes almost worth- 

 less or even a menace to livestock when the troublesome awns appear. 

 The plants green up mainly at the base and send up new shoots with 

 the advent of winter and spring rains and make valuable forage at 

 that time. 



The specific name divaricata and the English name of spreading 

 three-awn refer to the spreading branches of the flower head, or 

 seed cluster. The common names involving the word "poverty" 

 apply to the poor, rather sterile soils in which this grass typically 

 occurs and possibly also to its poor forage value at the time of seed 

 maturity. 



Poverty three-awn is distinguished from most of the three-awns, 

 when mature, by its widely branched seed head (panicle), which is 

 often more than half the length of the entire plant. The branches 

 of the panicle are rigid and straight and extend horizontally from 

 the main stem; usually they are in pairs and bear seeds only out 

 toward the ends. The panicle breaks off easily when mature and 

 is blown about by the wind. 



