GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 39 
Shallow plowing or surface cultivation merely stimulates the 
growth of the grass. 
PORCUPINE-GRASS 
Stipa spdrtea, Trin. 
Other English names: Weather Grass, Needle Grass, Auger-seed 
Grass. In South Dakota it is called Wild Oats. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to July. 
Seed-time: July to August. 
Range: Prairies of the Middle Western States from Ohio to the 
Rocky Mountains, north to Manitoba, British Columbia, and 
the Saskatchewan region. 
Habitat: Dry soil; wild meadows 
and pastures. 
A large, stout grass, growing in 
tufts from a matted cluster of fibrous 
roots. Culms two to four feet tall, 
simple, erect, smooth. Sheaths long, 
mostly overlapping, slightly rough ; 
basal blades about half as long as 
the culm, involute, and tapering to 
a thread-like point; stem leaves six 
inches to a foot long, hardly more 
than a sixth of an inch wide, gener- 
ally flat but sometimes involute, 
with long, attenuate points. Pani- 
cles long and slim, with erect 
branches, the base at first often 
enclosed by the sheath but later 
muchexserted. Spikelets one-seeded, 
the glumes smooth, very narrow 
and bristle-pointed, exceeding an 
inch in length; the lemma tightly 
enfolding the seed, hard, stiff, brown, 
its lower part clothed with short 
rigid hairs and having a sharp- 
pointed beak or callus, and at the 
tip an awn, sometimes six inches 
long, rough, stiff, strongly twisted 
Fig. 15.— Porcupine-grass (Stipa 
spartea). X %. 
