Dasyochloa
Dasyochloa is a monotypic genus containing the single species Dasyochloa pulchella, also known as desert fluff-grass or low woollygrass. It is a densely tufted perennial grass found in the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
Description
It is a perennial bunchgrass forming small tufts just a few centimeters high with clumps of short, sharp-pointed leaves. The tufts are often enveloped in masses of cottony fibers; these are actually hairlike strands of excreted and evaporated mineral salts.The leaves produce soft, cob-webby hairs that dissolve in water, after summer rains. The hairs are typically not present in spring. Numerous hairless, wiry, stems are tall.
The hairy inflorescence is a spikelet on the end of the stem, surrounded by a bundle of bractlike leaves, and is long. The spikelets are pale in color, sometimes striped with red, purple, or green. It blooms from February to May.