Participant Info

Species

Aristida arizonica

Family

Poaceae

CommonName

Arizona three-awn

Presence

yes

Status

native

EarliestDate

?

LatestDate

?

Ecosystem

basin, foothill, montane

Geobotanical

Culebras, NCristos

Counties

Alamosa, Costilla

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

Comments

NEED IN SITU PHOTOS. In the Watershed, Arizona three-awn has rarely been recorded. Paul Lister vouchered a plant in 1924 from Cat Creek Park at 9,000' above Cat Creek in Rio Grande Co, but that elevation and habitat does not fit the species and the record is not accepted by BONAP or Ackerfield (2022). Shaw (2008) and BONAP, however, indicate Alamosa and Costilla counties, which have the typical terrain favored by Aristida arizonic: dry loam in pinyon-juniper slopes. The species can be recognized by the lemma, which has three awns. The USA distribution is southern Nevada, southern Utah, Arizona, southern Colorado, New Mexico, and the western tip of Texas. A. arizonica follows the Rio Grande drainage from the northern to the southern border and on down to the Big Bend region of Texas. Note that it and A. purpurea are the only species of Aristida so far recorded from the Watershed.

Annotation