Common Mediterranean Grass

Schismus barbatus (L.) Thellung, Bull. Herb. Boissier II 7:391. 1907.
Fej/ttca iaria/o L. Demonst. PI. 3. 1753; Amoen. Acad. 3: 400. 1756.
Schismus fasciculalus Beauv. Agrost. 74. 177. 1812, name only; Trin. Fund. Agrost. 148. 1820.
No locality cited. Schismus marginalus Beauv. Agrost. 177. pi. 15, f. 4. 1812. No locality cited. Culms densely tufted, branching at the base, erect to widely spreading, 5 to 35 cm. tall; foliage mostly scant, the sheaths with a few long delicate hairs at the summit; blades 2-10 cm. long, 1-2 mm. wide, the basal subfiliform, short, curved ; panicles pale to purplish, mostly dense, 1-4 cm. long; pedicels slender, finally disarticulating at base and falling with the spikelet or with the glumes; spikelets about 5-flowered, 5-6 mm. long; glumes about equaling the spikelet, 5-7-nered, acute; lemmas about 2 mm. long, 9-nerved, the summit hyaline, nerveless, the margin appressed-pilose on the lower half, the teeth minute, sometimes with a minute mucro between, the rachilla-joints slender, flexuous; palea concave, as broad as the lemma and about as long.
Type locality: Spain.
Distribution: Open ground, yards, along roadsides, and dry riverbeds, introduced in Arizona and California; native of the Mediterranean region.