Leptochloa crinita
False Rhodes Grass

Family: Poaceae

Small perennial bunchgrass reaching 3’ or so when blooming, but the leaf blades staying much smaller. In summer through fall, digitate spikes form the inflorescence. Winter deciduous grass. Easily distinguished from the common and widespread annual Chloris virgata because L. crinita is perennial.

Full to part sun, best on irrigation. Hardiness undetermined but the grass naturally grows up to 4000’ in elevation in our region.

Native grasses are extremely important plants for wildlife: as nesting material for birds as well as native bees and other insects, as habitat for many organisms, and as food: adult insects eat the foliage, granivorous birds depend on many species for seeds, and most grass species are used as larval hosts for many species of butterflies and moths, especially skippers. Many bee species collect the pollen of many species of grasses. All can be used for desert tortoise enclosures, though the more spreading types are better for keeping up with a tortoise appetite.

Grasses also play an important role in the ecology of soil, and because they are monocots, they can be planted close to other species of plants (the nature of the root systems of monocots renders them less imposing on neighboring plants). They hold soil down and help prevent erosion. Many species are pioneer plants that convert disturbed soils into hospitable places for other plants.

The generic name is derived from the Greek words leptos, meaning "thin," and chloa, meaning "grass," referring to the inflorescences. crinita means having long, soft hairs. There are 30 species of Leptochloa in Asia, Australia, and the Americas.

Found on dry flats, in canyons and on rocky slopes below 4,000 ft in Arizona, southern New Mexico, southern Texas, and south into southern Mexico.

Leptochloa crinita on SEINET
Photo by Deborah Bird, iNaturalist