| Indian ricegrass | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Subfamily: | Pooideae |
| Genus: | Eriocoma |
| Species: | E. hymenoides |
| Binomial name | |
| Eriocoma hymenoides (Roem. & Schult.) Rydb. | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
Synonymy
| |
Eriocoma hymenoides (common names: Indian ricegrass and sand rice grass) is a cool-season, perennial bunchgrass. It is native to western North America.
In the wild, Eriocoma hymenoides typically grows 10 to 61 centimetres (4 to 24 inches) tall and 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12 in) wide. [7] It has narrow, rolled leaf blades. [8] [9]
Eriocoma hymenoides is native to western North America east of the Cascades from British Columbia and Alberta south to southern California, northeastern Mexico, and Texas.
It grows in a variety of habitats from desert scrub to ponderosa pine forests. It can live in sandy to clayey textured soils. [7] It can stabilize shifting sand. [10]
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Indian ricegrass is an important food for wild grazers such as bison, bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, pronghorns, and jackrabbits. For some of these species, it is especially vital in late winter, as it produces green shoots earlier than other grasses. The seeds are heavily consumed by many rodents and birds. Seed caching rodents may enhance seedling survival and long-term survival of the plant. [11]
Indian ricegrass is preferentially consumed by cattle and is an early casualty of overgrazing.
In the past, the grass was a staple food of Native Americans, especially when the maize crop failed, and for non-agricultural tribes. Seed of the ricegrass was gathered and ground into meal or flour and made into bread. Since 2000, the ricegrass has been cultivated in Montana and marketed under the trade name Montina as a gluten-free grain. [12] The Zuni people used the ground seeds as a staple before the availability of corn. [13] [14]
It was officially recognized as the Nevada state grass in 1977, [15] [16] and as the Utah state grass in 1990. [17] [18]
Stipa is a genus of around 300 large perennial hermaphroditic grasses collectively known as feather grass, needle grass, and spear grass. They are placed in the subfamily Pooideae and the tribe Stipeae, which also contains many species formerly assigned to Stipa, which have since been reclassified into new genera.
Oryzopsis is a genus of Chinese and North American plants in the grass family. Species from this genus are commonly called ricegrass.
Indian millet is a name widely used in different parts of the world to describe a number of different plants. A possibly incomplete list is:
The Truckee Meadows is a valley in Northern Nevada, named for the Truckee River, which collects and drains all water in the valley. Truckee Meadows is also colloquially used as a name for the Reno–Sparks metropolitan area, even though the metro area includes areas outside this valley. The name for the valley in the Washo language is Welganuk.
Montina is a brand name of a type of flour created from milled Indian ricegrass, a type of grass native to the western United States. Indian rice grass was grown and used by Native Americans as much as 7,000 years ago. The grass is not related to rice, and the flour is gluten-free.
Nassella pulchra, basionym Stipa pulchra, is a species of grass known by the common names purple needlegrass and purple tussockgrass. It is native to the U.S. state of California, where it occurs throughout the coastal hills, valleys, and mountain ranges, as well as the Sacramento Valley and parts of the Sierra Nevada foothills, and Baja California.
Achnatherum is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family, Poaceae. It includes 20 species of needlegrass native to temperate Eurasia and North Africa. Several needlegrass species have been switched between Achnatherum and genus Stipa; taxonomy between the two closely related genera is still uncertain. In 2019 Peterson et al. reorganized the genera in tribe Stipeae based on molecular DNA studies, and placed the species from the Americas into other genera.
Achnatherum robustum, commonly known as sleepy grass, is a perennial plant in the Poaceae or grass family.
Piptatherum is a genus of plants in the grass family known as ricegrass.
Eriocoma arida is a species of grass known by the common name Mormon needlegrass. It is native to the southwestern United States and northeastern Mexico.
Eriocoma coronata, formerly classified as Achnatherum coronatum, is a greenish species of grass known by the common name crested needlegrass, giant ricegrass, and giant stipa.
Eriocoma parishii is a species of grass known by the common name Parish's needlegrass.
Pinyon–juniper woodland, also spelled piñon–juniper woodland, is a biome found mid-elevations in arid regions of the Western United States, characterized by being an open forest dominated by low, bushy, evergreen junipers, pinyon pines, and their associates. At lower elevations, junipers often predominate and trees are spaced widely, bordering on and mingling with grassland or shrubland, but as elevation increases, pinyon pines become common and trees grow closer, forming denser canopies. Historically, pinyon-juniper woodland provided a vital source of fuel and food for indigenous peoples of the American Southwest. The nuts continue to be a traditional indigenous food, and because nut-collecting was also adopted by the Spanish in the 1500s, the nuts are also traditionally harvested by some Hispanic communities.
Achnatherum calamagrostis is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, known by the common names spear grass, needle grass, and silver spike grass. It is an ornamental grass native to the clearings in the mountains of central and southern Europe, which grows in mounds of blue-green leaves and long, silvery plumes.
The Stipeae are a tribe of grasses within the subfamily Pooidae, with up to 600 described species.
Eriocoma nelsonii is a species of grass known by the common names Columbia needlegrass, subalpine needlegrass, and western needlegrass. It is native to western North America, from Yukon and British Columbia to California to Texas.
The flora of the Colorado Plateau and Canyonlands region is generally characterized by plant adaptations to the arid conditions of the region, and a wide variation of plant communities from wide variations in elevation and soil types. The elevation variation results in temperature variation. Differing soil types are largely due to erosion of different sedimentary layers in the canyons, from the layers at lowest point of canyons of the Colorado River network, to the top layers of the plateau. Exceptions to flora adapted to aridity occur in lowland riparian areas, at springs, and in hanging gardens.
Eriocoma is a genus of plants in the grass family (Poaceae). It includes 27 species of grasses native to western and central North America. Species range from Alaska through western and central Canada, western and central United States, to northern Mexico.
basionym of Poaceae Achnatherum hymenoides
Notes: = Oryzopsis cuspidata
nomenclatural synonym: Poaceae Eriocoma cuspidata Nutt.
Basionym: Stipa hymenoides