General: Common Mediterranean Grass (Schismus barbatus) is a short, upright grass that grows in individual clumps (bunches) in the deserts around Las Vegas. The clumps, however, can be so dense as to nearly cover the ground. Careful inspection is required to separate this grass from Arabian Grass (Schismus arabicus), with which it superficially looks the same.

Leaf: blade < 2 mm wide, thread-like. Spikelet: glumes do not enclose florets, lemma with shallow notch. glumes 4-5 mm. Roots frail.

Mediterranean Grass is a common component of vegetation associations in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Family: Grass (Poaceae).

Other Names: Most people refer to the Mediterranean-Arabian Grass complex simply as Schismus.

Plant Form: Annual grass. Grows in bunches. Insecurely anchored to the ground with few roots.

Height: About 5 inches.

Stems:

Leaves: Leaf blade < 2 mm wide, thread-like.

Flowers: Spikelet: glumes do not enclose florets, lemma with shallow notch. glumes 4-5 mm.

Seeds:

Habitat: Sandy and rocky soils.

Elevation: To about 5,000 feet.

Distribution: Native to southern Europe, this species is an invasive weed in the U.S. deserts from California to Texas.

Comments: This grass sprouts early in the spring, grows quickly, then sets seed and dies, leaving what can be a dense carpet of dry grass that carries fires in areas that once rarely burned because the shrubs were spread too far apart. Because it burns so easily, Mediterranean Grass and other non-native grass threaten to help change the Mojave Desert from a shrub-dominated landscape to an open grassland.