Fluffgrass
Dasyochloa pulchella

Family: Poaceae

Dwarf, tufted perennial, can appear annual usually under 6” tall. Plants blooms summer into fall. It can be actively growing whenever moisture is present, so it is both a cool-season and warm-season grass.

This is a fairly distinct dwarf bunchgrass to 15 cm tall, often with long, stiff, sometimes arching runners producing new plants, sometimes in mid air; the densely packed panicles are subtended by leafy bracts and spikelets are dense with hairs which can appear to be bursting from inflorescences. The tufts of hairs can give the tops of plants a white, snowy appearance, especially late in the season. Early season new leaves are often covered with white cobwebby fluff which easily falls off. One of the most hardy of the small perennial grasses, it responds to very little rainfall and is often found on overgrazed or denuded soils.

Full to part sun. Best started on irrigation but will volunteer outside irrigation (smaller off irrigation).

Birds use the fluff for nesting material in addition to eating the seeds.

Dasyochloa is from the Greek dasys, shaggy, and chloa, grass, referring to the wooly spikelets; pulchella is derived from the Latin for beautiful. This is the only species in the monotypic genus Dasyochloa.

Dry, rocky slopes and flats below 6,000 ft. in central to southern California, east to central Colorado, south through most of Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas; south into central Mexico.

Photo by Max Licher, SEINET
Dasyochloa pulchella on iNaturalist

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Arizona Cottontop (Digitaria californica)