Aristida
Sign in to savethumb|right|Aristida stricta|Pineland three-awn (A. stricta) flowers thumb|Aristida hystrix L. f. inflorescence Aristida is a very nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family. Aristida is distinguished by having three awns (bristles) on each lemma of each floret. The genus includes about 300 species found worldwide, often in arid warm regions. This genus is among those colloquially called three-awns wiregrasses, speargrasses and needlegrasses. The name Aristida is derived from the Latin "arista", meaning "awn".
Taxonomy · GBIF
Purple Threeawn
GENUS
- KingdomPlantae
- PhylumTracheophyta
- ClassLiliopsida
- OrderPoales
- FamilyPoaceae
Observations7,722
Groupplantae
via GBIF · iNaturalist · CC0
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Aristideae
- Image
- Aristida purpurea close.jpg
Show 4 more facts
via Wikidata · CC0
Article
4 sectionsContents
- Description
- Species
- See also
- References
thumb|right|Aristida stricta|Pineland three-awn (A. stricta) flowers thumb|Aristida hystrix L. f. inflorescence Aristida is a very nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family. Aristida is distinguished by having three awns (bristles) on each lemma of each floret. The genus includes about 300 species found worldwide, often in arid warm regions. This genus is among those colloquially called three-awns wiregrasses, speargrasses and needlegrasses. The name Aristida is derived from the Latin "arista", meaning "awn".
They are characteristic of semiarid grassland. The Wiregrass Region of North America is named for A. stricta. Other locales where this genus is an important component of the ecosystem include the Carolina Bays, the sandhills of the Carolinas, and elsewhere, Mulga scrub in Australia, and the xeric grasslands around Lake Turkana in Africa. Local increases in the abundance of wiregrasses is a good indicator of overgrazing, as livestock avoid them.