Halopyrum mucronatum (L.) Stapf

Res Sea coastal strip and Gebel Elba.

Indian Ocean and Red Sea from Mozambique to Sri Lanka.

Coastal dunes, growing up through successive accretions of sand.

Perennial.

A grass of coastal sand-dunes.

Tough stoloniferous perennial, the stolons rooting to form dense tussocks; roots thick and tomentose; culms up to 1 m or more high, rigid, woody, branching, producing fascicles of shoots at the nodes. Leaf-blades up to 45 cm long, involute or opening out and up to 4 mm wide, stiff, mostly glaucous. Inflorescence linear to narrowly lanceolate, 1040 cm long, the branches loosely 3-7-spiculate. Spikelets 8-25-flowered, lanceolate to ovate or oblong, 12-26 mm long, 5-7 mm wide, straw-coloured or tinged with purple; glumes narrowly ovate, 6-9 mm long, coriaceous, acute; lemmas lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 7-9 mm long, asperulous or very minutely hairy; callus and rhachilla-tip bearded with white hairs 4-5 mm long.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind); Egypt to Mozambique and Madagascar, through Arabia to India and Ceylon.

Fl. & Fr. Per. March-September.