General: Sand Ricegrass (Eriocoma hymenoides) is a common, upright grass that grows in individual clumps (bunches) in the deserts around Las Vegas. Sand Ricegrass is a stately bunchgrass that grows to about 2 feet and has a wide, open mass of branched flower stalks. The many seeds are relatively large and rice-like, and native peoples and pioneers harvested the seeds for food.

Sand Ricegrass is a fairly common component of vegetation associations in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zones.

Family: Grass (Poaceae).

Other Names: Achnatherum hymenoides. Sand Ricegrass

Plant Form: Perennial grass. Grows in bunches.

Height: About 2 feet tall.

Stems:

Leaves:

Flowers:

Seeds: Large for a wild grass, about half the size of a grain of white rice.

Habitat: Mostly sandy soils.

Elevation: to about 6,500 feet.

Distribution:

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