Mediterranean needlegrass

Stipa capensis, the Mediterranean needlegrass or twisted-awn needlegrass, is a small tufted annual grass widely distributed across the Mediterranean basin, North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia, often growing in semi-arid steppes and stony slopes. Plants form modest tufts 10-50 cm tall with very narrow, often inrolled bristle-like leaf blades a few millimetres wide. The slender, contracted panicle is partly enclosed by the uppermost leaf sheath and bears a small number of one-flowered spikelets. Each lemma terminates in a long, distinctive awn 6-9 cm long that is twice geniculate and tightly twisted in its lower portion, becoming straight and feathery only at the very tip. As the awn hygroscopically twists and untwists with changes in humidity, it drives the sharp-pointed seed into the soil, an adaptation that also causes injury to grazing livestock.