Nassella mexicana (Hitchc.) R. W. Pohl

Stipa mexicana Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 24: 247. 1925
Culms cespitose. glabrous, erect, or usually geniculate or prostrate-spreading, mostly 20-30 cm. long, sometimes as much as 60 cm. long; sheaths glabrous, naked at the throat ; ligule a very short firm membrane; blades firm, involute, sharp-pointed, glabrous beneath, scabrous on upper siu-face, mostly less than 10 cm. long and less than 0.3 mm. thick when rolled, sometimes as much as 20 cm. long; panicle narrow, usually purplish, 5-10 cm. long, the branches appressed or ascending, short and few-flowered; glumes equal, about 1 cm. long, broad, 3-nerved, rather firm, glabrous, abruptly narrowed to an acute point; lemma i mm. long, finally dull-brown, the callus rather short and comparatively blunt, densely barbed with white hairs, the body oblong, appressed-villous all over with short white hairs, somewhat narrowed at summit into a short firm whitish neck about 0.2 mm. long, ciliate with hairs about 0.5 mm. long; awn about 1 cm. long, weakly twice geniculate, scabrous-pubescent to the second bend.
TTE LOC.M.ITV: Sierra de las Cruces. State of Mexico (Pringle 4299).
Distribution: Open woods and grassy slopes at high altitudes, southern Mexico to Peru.