Aristida vestita

Aristida vestita is an annual or perennial herb, growing up to 85 cm tall. 
The species is robust, growing in dense tufts (caespitose).

The culms of Aristida vestita are up to 60 cm high, they are rigid and geniculate. 
The culms can be simple or sometime branched from the base or from the nodes. 
They are pubescent or woolly in the lower part, often glabrous upwards. 
The culms have 3 to 4 glabrous nodes. 
The rhizome of Aristida vestita is very short, with dense tufts of barren shoots and culms.

The leaves of Aristida vestita are light green to glaucous in colour. 
The leaf blades are 5 to 20 cm long and 1 to 4 mm wide. They are narrow and glabrous. 
The leaf-sheath are rounded, tight, scarcely striate and glabrous. 
The lower leaf-sheaths are broad and papery, straw in colour, lanate on the back and along the margins, soon becoming glabrous. 
The ligule has a very shortly ciliate rim. 
The auricles are found with a tuft of woolly hairs. 
The leaf base is flat, involute in the upper part, shortly pubescent or somewhat villous above, glabrous beneath.

The flowers of Aristida vestita are growing in pyramidal and lax panicles. 
The panicles are 10 to 15 cm long and about 7 cm wide. 
The branches of the panicles are filiform and glabrous. 
The spikelets are similar. The spikelets are 7 to 8 mm long, lanceolate in shape, solitary and pedicelled. 
The lower glume is 4 x 0.5 mm, 1-nerved and glabrous. 
The upper glume is 7 x 0.5 mm, acuminate, 1-nerved and keeled. 
There is one floret. The lemma is 7-8 x 1 mm, lanceolate, 3-nerved and awned. 
The awns are 1 to 1.5 cm long. The palea is minute and hyaline. 
There are 3 stamens. 
The ovary is elliptic, with 2 free styles and a stigma plumose.

The grains of Aristida vestita are very slender caryopsis, ending with 3 long awns.

The grains of Aristida vestita are very slender caryopsis, ending with 3 long awns.