Stipa capensis
Stipa capensis
Kum kılaçı
Tufted annual or biennial, 10-30 cm. Stems erect or geniculate-ascending, glabrous. Leaves soft; lower leaf sheaths ± hairy and bearded at throat, upper mostly glabrous, usually inflated and enclosing base of inflorescence; ligule very short; blades narrow, pubescent at least above. Panicle dense, contracted, with many silvery spikelets, Glumes subequal, c. 20 mm, hyaline, narrowly lanceolate. Lemma 4-7 mm, pilose, with ring of hairs below awn; callus pointed; awn 6-10 cm, bi-geniculate, becoming twisted together into a characteristic erect tail after anthesis; column of awn densely hairy, bristle straight and sharply scabrid. Fl. 3-6. Dry sandy places, s.l. 400 m.
Mediterranean area, extending to N. & S. Africa & S.W. Asia. Medit. element.
