Heteropogon contortus
Tanglehead
Whole plant of Tanglehead in the field. |
Tanglehead seedheads look brown. |
Handful of Heteropogon contortus against the car. |
The young awns have not started to curl. |
The ends of the Tanglehead awns sometimes fan out like Three-awn grasses, but there are more tangles and more than three awns. |
The tangled seedheads. |
The rows of spikelets have their protruding dark awns below. |
Lovely stigmas protrude from the opened florets at anthesis. The black "twig" is actually the awns. |
The tangled roots of Tanglehead. |
How to Identify Tanglehead
A mass of thick, dark brown, tangled awns gives it away. But when young, the awns are straight and clustered into a dark brown spike that is unlike any other grass.
Similar Species
While Tanglehead is quite unique, this photo shows that the awns of
Hesperostipa neomexicana (New Mexican Needlegrass) can get tangled below their much longer apicies.
