Re: California Native Grass Lawns

--- Gayle Kalman <dragonfly67@earthlink.net> wrote:
>They
> are beutiful, however
> the seeds are evil.  They are indeed needles and
> they will easilly attach to
> clothing and pets.  They can and do work themselves
> into fabric and into the
> skin.  I like them in places where they can be free
> to spread and are well
> away from me and my dogs (who suffer greatly from
> them).

I concur. The nasella are beautiful, fine foliage, and
the seed heads are quite beautiful lit up or simply
blowing in the breeze, but the seeds are sharp buggers
and really can penetrate skin. I remember i was
working one summer for a native plant restoration
agency and we were collecting purple needle grass.
They way we did it was to grip the seed head and pull
upwards. Most of the time we came away with just
seeds. But often we'd end up with the seeds lodged in
our skin. The only other thing that was worse was the
native Phacelia (i HATED collecting that. Even the
marah seeds while encased in a spiny pod were easy to
get around... you just stepped on the pod till the
spines broke off, No such luck with phacelia). 

Back to Nasella. I had collected a few seeds years ago
and i'm STILL finding it in my garden. It loved the
rocky dry stream bed (no competition) and seemed to
pop up all the time. I'm sure i'll find some this
spring. They do look MUCH better with some summer
water though, without it they can go brownish. 

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