Hopia obtusa

Vine Mesquite

Field view of Hopia obtusa, common name Vine Mesquite.

This basal leaves view also shows the prominent stolons.

The seedheads tend to be irregular in shape.

A rather spike-like patch of Vine Mesquite

Close view of the seedhead of Hopia obtusa. This is a distinctive kind of spikelet, a tiny oval where the glumes and hardened lemmas enclose the florets.

Here you can see the rows of rounded spikelets.

You can estimate the size of the small round spikelets. The graph is in 1/4 inches.

This view shows that the white stolons can grow right over the basal leaves.

Showing the stolons running along the ground where they set roots for a new plant.

How to Identify Vine Mesquite

  Hopia obtusa has amazing stolons running over the leaves and creeping along the ground to where they have formed a new plant. Sometimes the plant is very low-growing, only a few inches high, but in better conditions the leaves will grow large and thick and the inflorescences will rise to well above your knee. The rows of little oval spikelets are unique in shape.

Similar Species

  Hopia obtusa was formerly placed in the genus Panicum, whose species all have oval spikelets. Many grasses have similar spikelets. Most of these have longer ovals with points or even awns at the tips and a good deal of them are covered with very short hairs. Vine Mesquite lacks such pointed, awned, or hairy spikelets. Its spikelets are more smooth and rounded than most. But the long, obvious stolons give away Vine Mesquite (hence this common name). It grows in wetter areas of every Arizona county.