2. Aristida basiramea Engelm. ex Vasey (forktip three‑awn)

Pl. 126 d; Map 512

Plants annual, with a soft base. Flowering stems 30–60 cm long, glabrous. Leaf blades 1–3 mm wide, usually strongly inrolled, glabrous or nearly so. Leaf sheaths glabrous. Lower glume 6–10 mm long, 1/2–3/4 as long as the upper glume, 1‑nerved, glabrous, the tip sharply pointed or with an awn 1–4 mm long. Upper glume 10–15 mm long, the tip undivided, sharply pointed or with an awn 1–5 mm long. Lemmas with the body 7–10 mm long, glabrous to inconspicuously roughened, the awns persistent, not jointed at the tip of the lemma (the awns arise as a continuation of the lemma tip, without a cross‑line), circular in cross‑section, the central awn 9–15 mm long, spirally coiled 1–3 turns at the base when dry (and thus differentiated from the lateral awns, which are not coiled), the lateral awns 5–12 mm long, spreading. August–October.

Uncommon and widely scattered in southern and central Missouri (eastern U.S. west to Minnesota, Wyoming, and Oklahoma). Dry upland forests, glades, and disturbed, open areas.

Aristida basiramea can be difficult to distinguish from A. dichotoma, particularly var. curtissii, which various authors have treated as a variety of either species.