Hilaria mutica (Buckley) Benth.

Pleuraphis mutica BuckL Proc. Acad. Phila. 1862 : 95. 1862
Hilaria mutica Benth. Jour. Linn. Soc. 19: 62. 1881.
Stems 2-6 dm. tall, simple, erect, smooth or sometimes rough below the puberulent nodes; leaves glabrous or hirsute, smooth or rough, confined mainly to the lower portion of the stem; sheaths overlapping; blades up to 8 cm. long, sometimes longer on the innovations, 2-4 mm. wide, erect or ascending, usually involute on the margins; inflorescence 3.5-7 cm. long, the axis glabrous, sometimes hispidulous on the angles; spikelet-clusters 5.5-7.5 mm. long, 3-4 times as long as the basal hairs; lateral spikelets with the empty scales inequilateral, long-ciliate on the margins, 2-lobed, the first scale longer than the second, cuneate, flabellately 5or 6-nerved, the midnerve excurrent as a hispid awn between the lobes, one lobe so small that it resembles a lateral appendage on the inner side of the scale, the second scale linearoblong, 4or 5-nerved, the parallel nerves all vanishing below the apex, none of them excurrent, the flowering scales 2 or 3, long-ciliate at the 2-lobed apex, the lobes rounded, 2or 3-nerved, one lateral nerve sometimes being suppressed, the midnerve terminating -at the sinus, the lateral nerves vanishing below the apex; central spikelet with the empty scales 2-lobed, longciliate on the margins above, equilateral, the apex divided into about 4 awns or awned lobes, the midnerve usually excurrent below the middle as a hispid awn shorter than the scale, the flowering scale 3-nerved, the lateral nerves vanishing below the apex, the midnerve excurrent
between the obtuse lobes as a short hispidulous awn.
Type locality : Northern Texas.
Distribution : Western Texas to California, and south to Durango and I^wer California.