Eriocoma membranacea (Pursh) Beal 1896 not Steud. 1840
Fendleria rhynchelytroides Steud.
Milium cuspidatum (Nutt.) Spreng.
Oryzopsis membranacea (Pursh) Vasey
Stipa membranacea Pursh
Urachne lanata Trin.
Eriocoma hymenoides (common names: Indian ricegrass and sand rice grass) is a cool-season, perennialbunchgrass. It is native to western North America.
Description
In the wild, Eriocoma hymenoides typically grows 10 to 61 centimetres (4 to 24 inches) tall and 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12 in) wide.[7] It has narrow, rolled leaf blades.[8][9]
It grows in a variety of habitats from desert scrub to ponderosa pine forests. It can live in sandy to clayey textured soils.[7] It can stabilize shifting sand.[10]
Indian ricegrass is an important food for wild grazers such as bison, bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, pronghorns, and jackrabbits. For some of these species, it is especially vital in late winter, as it produces green shoots earlier than other grasses. The seeds are heavily consumed by many rodents and birds. Seed caching rodents may enhance seedling survival and long-term survival of the plant.
Indian ricegrass is preferentially consumed by cattle and is an early casualty of overgrazing.
Uses
In the past, the grass was a staple food of Native Americans, especially when the maize crop failed, and for non-agricultural tribes. Seed of the ricegrass was gathered and ground into meal or flour and made into bread. Since 2000, the ricegrass has been cultivated in Montana and marketed under the trade name Montina as a gluten-free grain.[11] The Zuni people used the ground seeds as a staple before the availability of corn.[12][13]
^"Eriocoma hymenoides". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
^ abTirmenstein, D. 1999. Achnatherum hymenoides. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Retrieved on 2009-04-24.
^Stubbendick, James (2017). North American Wildland Plants, third ed. University of Nebraska Press. p. 174. ISBN978-0-8032-9965-8.
^Mojave Desert Wildflowers, Pam MacKay, 2nd Ed., p. 287
^Fagan, Damian (2012). Canyon Country Wildflowers, 2nd ed., Morris Bush Publishing in cooperation with Canyonlands Natural History Association, ISBN978-0-7627-7013-7, p. 151.
^Stevenson, Matilda Coxe 1915 Ethnobotany of the Zuni Indians. SI-BAE Annual Report #30 (p.67)
^Castetter, Edward F. 1935 Ethnobiological Studies in the American Southwest I. Uncultivated Native Plants Used as Sources of Food. University of New Mexico Bulletin 4(1):1-44 (p. 27)
