Purple needlegrass

Purple needlegrass is a beautiful, native grass of California that is also known by the scientific name Nassella pulchra. It can be used as a food source through its roots, seeds, and stems. Its sixteen foot deep roots can be used as an anchor for the soil preventing erosion. This wonderful grass used to cover over 20 million acres, but is currently found on only about 100,000 acres. Even though it can live over a century or more, it is currently trying to be restored from endangerment. It was even designated the state grass of California in 2004.

Anatomy
Purple needlegrass, a member of the grass family, contains tiny “grass flowers”. Each flower is made up of a pair of small bracts, the pistil, and stamens. These flowers do not contain petals because they use wind pollination. They do not need petals to attract insects. Huge petals would get in the way of wind gusts, thus preventing pollination. The purple needlegrass is the only bunch grass that has a needle like awns. This long bristle helps plant the seed by boreing into the soil. 

Once this seed is planted it can grow to have roots up to 16 feet long and grow up to 18 inches tall. The long roots of the plant can hold moisture and can sustain the plant. The moisture also prevents the plant from being scorched. 

Nassella pulchra blooms in the late winter through the early spring. The blooms are fluttering seed heads that begin with a purplish color and then turn to a silvery-tan. The seeds attached to the stems look like a needle and thread, thus the name purple needlegrass.

The roots of the grass will grow down sometimes as deep as 20 feet and can be used as a food source along with leaves by herbivores. 

Reproduction
The seed of the Nassella pulchra are large and functional. This plant possesses a twisting awn and a pointed seed that makes self-burial a reasonable possibility. This helps reassure that seedlings will begin to mature. Purple needlegrass plants are also able to produce sizable amounts of seed. These reproductive characteristics enable this species to settle and grow in disturbed areas rapidly. Once seeds have been planted, this species may bloom and set seed within two years. They also produce vegetation. Being a bunchgrass, it does not have rhizomes or stolons. These bunches can break up, creating a clone. This cloning process happens normally after heavy defoliation by burning or grazing. Nassella pulchra seedlings can survive in patches of annuals through their first fall and winter but in spring, during sudden growth of annuals, the seedlings of the bunchgrass normally die. Even those who survive the annuals are usually small and not strong enough to survive the harsh, dry summer. Even if they made it through the summer, seedlings may not be produced. 

The seed of the Nassella pulchra is tightly enveloped by its lemma, but not fused to it. The long awn, which is around 7 times as long as the lemma, is attached to the top of the lemma. The awn is very sensitive to changes in humidity. When it is dry during the day it twists up tightly. At night, when it is moist it unravels itself. The lemma surface has stiff hairs that point backwards. When the seed twists it pushes downward into the soil. When it uncoils, the hairs do not allow the seed to be pushed back out of the soil but only deeper into it. This helps the plant drill itself into the ground and protect itself from predators and possible fires that may occur.

Ecology
Purple needlegrass can be found in the state of California from southern Baja to northern California. This bunch grass has been found normally in grasslands, chaparral, or oak woodlands within this area. It used to cover over 20 million acres of this state, but is now found on only about 100,000 acres. Even though purple needlegrass can grow in many soil types such as dry, clay soils, and drier rich soils, due to fires, it has had trouble maintaining life. However, there is a rising demand for restoration activities such as reseeding these burned areas. 

Native grasses, such as the Nassella pulchra is tolerant to drought, will limit erosion, and can live longer than a century. This species can also help control weeds in a natural way that doesn’t involve hurtful chemicals and limits cost of laborers. It can also help expel the yellow star thistle, which grows in its environment.

This plant can also be used as a food source. Its roots, leaves, and seeds are all edible. This plant is also used as a food source for California’s cattle industry. Nassella pulchra can be used to help restore habitats, prevent erosion and maintain levees. It cannot be used as a lawn grass because of its clustered nature, but it can be used as decorative grass. This grass is normally found on dry slopes at around 5000 feet. It can be found in Sacramento Valley, parts of the Sierra foothills, and South of the Bay Area in California. Purple needlegrass is a large component of the coastal Terraces and Valleys of the central coastal range extending down to the coastal and mesa grasslands of San Diego County and Baja California. It can also be found in serpentine soils. 

Utilization of Natural Germplasm Sources from Nassella pulchra
Nassella pulchra has been used in the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) method. It was used to reveal the mode of reproduction and nucleotide variation among 11 natural populations and three selected natural germplasm releases of the purple needlegrass. Twelve co-dominant plants within eight populations did not show any heterozygous offspring. Estimates of nucleotide diversity within these populations ranged from 0 to 0.00069 where as the total nucleotide diversity among the populations was 0.00107 to 0.00382. Measures of population differentiation (GS) using Shannon-Weaver diversity values and estimated nucleotide substitutions were 0.9 and 0.86. Although there was a mixture of true-breeding genotypes the populations could be distinguished. The geographical distance between the natural source populations was associated with the genetic distance (r = 0.6) among the sample populations. The results showed that inbreeding and selection has contributed to the separation of Purple needlegrass populations. Foundation seed populations of the selected germplasm releases of the N. pulchra were genetically precise and most similar to natural seed collected near the other source populations. These marketable germplasm sources will be used for conservation plantings.