Culms 50-125 cm, mostly glabrous, pubescent below the nodes; nodes 2-3, dark, glabrous or slightly pubescent. Sheaths smooth to scabrid-ulous; ligules of basal leaves 0.5-2.8 mm, truncate to rounded, of upper leaves 1-3.5 mm, rounded to acute; blades 10-30 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, 3-5-veined, abaxial surfaces glabrous, smooth, adaxial surfaces smooth or scabrous over the veins, margins smooth or scabrous. Panicles 6-20 cm, open, with 10-25 spikelets; branches ascending, flexuous; pedicels to 1 mm, flattened, hispid. Glumes subequal, 9-12 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide; lower glumes 5-7-veined; upper glumes 7-veined; florets 6.5-10 mm long, 1.5-2.1 mm thick, terete to somewhat laterally compressed; calluses 0.6-1.9 mm, blunt to acute, strigose; lemmas golden brown to dark brown at maturity, shiny or not, smooth to spiny-tuberculate distally or for almost their entire length, pubescent, hairs tawny to golden brown, evenly distributed or somewhat more abundant on the basal 1/2, apices tapering to the crown; crowns 0.5-0.6 mm, inconspicuous, straight, hairy, hairs 0.5-1 mm; awns 19-27(35) mm, persistent, twice-geniculate, sometimes inconspicuously so; paleas 6.3-9.5 mm; lodicules 2, 1-1.5 mm, acute; anthers 3.5-5.5 mm, sometimes penicillate. Caryopses about 7 mm, fusiform. 2n = 42.
Piptochaetium pringlei grows in oak woodlands, often on rocky soils, in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is often confused with P. fimbriatum; it differs from that species in having longer florets and sharper calluses.
FNA 2007
Common Name: Pringle's speargrass Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Graminoid General: Perennial bunch grass with stems 50-125 cm, mostly glabrous and pubescent below the 2-3 nodes, which are dark, glabrous and slightly pubescent. Vegetative: Blades 10-30 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, involute, 3-5 veined, with under surfaces glabrous, upper surfaces smooth to scabrous over veins, margins smooth or scabrous, ligules 0.5-3 mm truncate to rounded, slightly larger in upper leaves. Inflorescence: Panicles 6-20 cm, open with 10-25 spikelets branches ascending, flexuous, pedicels to 1 mm, flattened; glumes subequal 9-12 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide, lower glumes 5-7 veined, upper glumes 7-veined, florets 6.5-10 mm long, 1.5-2 mm thick, terete to laterally compressed; calluses blunt to acute; lemmas golden brown to dark brown, pubescent with tawny to golden brown hairs, evenly distributed with persistent awns 19-27 mm, twice geniculate. Ecology: Found in rocky soils in oak woodlands from 3,500-10,000 ft (1067-3048 m); flowers July-October. Notes: Often confused with P. fimbriatum, differs in that this species has longer florets and sharper calluses. Ethnobotany: Unknown Etymology: Piptochaetium is from Greek pipto, to fall and chaite, for bristle or long hair, while pringlei is named for Cyrus Guernsey Pringle (1838-1911) a Quaker and plant collector for Asa Gray in the southwest in the 1880s. Synonyms: Stipa pringlei Editor: SBuckley, 2010
Russ Kleinman, Bill Norris, Richard Felger, Danielle Walkup and the GNPS Dendrology Seminar