Single Record
Participant Info
- Species
- Achnatherum hymenoides [Eriocoma hymenoides] [Oryzopsis hymenoides] [Eriocoma cuspidata] [Stipa hymenoides]
- Family
- Poaceae
- CommonName
- Indian ricegrass, Indian rice grass
- Presence
- yes
- Status
- native
- EarliestDate
- 1900
- LatestDate
- 2025
- Ecosystem
- basin, shrubland, foothill, montane, ruderal, urban, sanddunes
- Geobotanical
- SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, Culebras, NCristos, UBasin, LBasin
- Counties
- Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache
- Passes
- WildlifePreserves
- Baca, Great Sand Dunes
- Other Localities
- PhotoRecords
- YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, north town limits of Del Norte, street side 1 Jan 2025
- Comments
- Indian ricegrass is found everywhere in the Watershed, from basin to montane. It is easily recognized, with its panicle of florets, shaped like a spindle, divaricately divided in pairs, each at the end of thread-like pedicels that grow shorter toward the distal end of the branch. Also the many stems of Achnatherum hymenoides are completely revolute, making them look superficiously like a stem. The species was an important food for native tribes, who carved wooden paddles to beat the seed loose and wove especially tight baskets to catch them in. It is present in every USA state from the western Great Plains to the Pacific coast. In Colorado it has been recorded from every county, and follows the the Rio Grande drainage through New Mexico and on down to the Big Bend region of Texas. Note that the previous accepted name was Oryzopsis hymenoides, and that currently POWO and iNaturalist call it Eriocoma hymenoides.
- Annotation