Bristly Foxtail

A little bit of Bristly Foxtail became quite the challenge. I looked and looked at it, wondering how I'd ever detail the beast. I guess there is looking and then there is seeing. I began to notice how the bristles changed angle depending on their axes. That helped. But what I think gave me trouble was a just not sharp enough pencil. Straight out of the electric sharpener the graphite tips still had a flat spot so I tried playing off of that edge. Not so good.

Upon the dearest advice, I just pulled out a single-edged razor and tried my hand at sharpening. I think this is the ticket! :-) Hmm...now how will I keep from spilling shavings and graphite dust all over the place?

Oh, and next time on the foxtail, it's more on the seed head and less on the stalk. And, a bit of leaf action too. :-)

Bristly Foxtail

After recently receiving a copy of Grasses, An Identification Guide, written and illustrated by Lauren Brown, I thought I'd try my hand at a grass ID. Rather than following the key guide, I simply scanned the pages for the distinctive seed head. It took no time to identify today's species as a member of the Bristly Foxtail, Setaria, genus.

It's probably a bit late in the season to positively identify the species but my guess is that this grass is the Green Foxtail, S. viridis.