Elymus smithii

Elymus smithii, more familiarly known as Pascopyrum smithii or western wheatgrass, is a long-lived, sod-forming rhizomatous perennial grass of the family Poaceae. It produces slender, erect culms typically 30 to 75 cm tall from a network of creeping rhizomes, with conspicuously reddish to purplish nodes that give rise to the alternate common name red-joint wheatgrass. The leaf blades are stiff, narrow, blue-green and strongly ribbed above, often inrolled in dry weather, while the inflorescence is a narrow, erect, two-ranked spike 5 to 15 cm long bearing closely overlapping spikelets, each with several florets enclosed by firm, lanceolate glumes. The species is widely distributed across the grasslands and prairies of North America, dominating much of the Great Plains, and is the official state grass of North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. It provides important forage for bison, livestock and wildlife.