Danthonia spicata

Danthonia spicata, commonly known as poverty oat grass or poverty grass, is a small tufted perennial grass of the family Poaceae, native to North America, where it is widespread across eastern Canada and the eastern and central United States, with scattered occurrences extending to western North America and northern Mexico. It typically grows on dry, sterile, often acidic soils of open woodland, rocky barrens, old fields, road verges and disturbed ground, where it is a pioneer of nutrient-poor habitats. The plant forms small, dense tufts 20–60 cm tall, with slender, wiry, erect culms arising from a knotted base of curled, dead leaf bases. The leaves are mostly basal, narrow, 1–3 mm wide, becoming distinctively curled and twisted as they dry; the ligule is a fringe of short hairs. The inflorescence is a small, narrow, few-spikeleted panicle 2–6 cm long with appressed, ascending branches; each spikelet is 8–12 mm long with 4–8 florets enclosed by two large glumes. The lemmas are pubescent and bear a flat, twisted, geniculate awn 5–9 mm long. Cleistogamous spikelets concealed in the leaf sheaths are also produced.