Hilaria rigida

It is a long-lived, shrubby or bushy, clumping perennial grass producing coarse, erect stems reaching 1 m (3.3 ft) in maximum height. Big galleta is heavily grazed and is valuable as a fair to good forage crop for sheep and cattle. It spreads from hard, woody rhizomes to form grayish, hairy, open, erect hummocks and clumps. The clumps can live to more than 100 years old. Its primary means of reproduction is by rhizomes, possibly also by tillering. It has a bush-like appearance because it is highly branched at the base. Clumping results from spread by tillers or short rhizomes. Clumps of leaves are 3 to 4 ft (0.91 to 1.22 m) wide. Seeds fall when mature, but their stalks persist, sticking out from the clumps like zigzagging wires, by which the plant can be identified at a distance. Fuzzy to wooly stems are stiff, heavy, and coarse. The stems are unusual among grasses in that they are solid, even between the nodes, whereas most grasses have hollow stems. Stems have nodes that are lined with long, sometimes curly hairs. Leaf blades are coarse and firm, fairly wide, and almost straight, from grayish to blue-green, sometimes with light wooly fuzz, and have curly hairs and edges that are rolled upward.