Aristida dichotoma Michx.
Poverty grass, churchmouse threeawn, Shinners’ three-awned grass
Poverty grass is native to eastern and southern North America. Aristida is from the Latin arista, “awn” or “beard,” a reference to tiny beardlike tufts; dichotoma means “forked in pairs.”
Plants: Poverty grass is a bunchgrass that prefers dry, open, often sandy soil. It is branched near the base, 8–16″ (20–40 cm) tall, with hairless stems.
Leaves: Basal, with short blades are about 1/32″ (1 mm) wide.
Flowers: Flowers occur on loosely branched clusters up to 3½″ (8.9 cm) long. Flowers are attached to branches, not a flower spike. Spikelets have short stalks and a single, often purplish, flower.
Fruits: Two glumes ⅛–¼″ (6–8 mm) long, like miniature corn husks that enclose a central lemma that is ~3/16″ (5–6 mm) long. The lemma is topped by an awn, a pointy spike that is coiled at the base and turned at a right angle. There are two more little awns, 1/32″ (1 mm) long.
Habitats: Dry, open, sandy ground: disturbed habitats, grasslands, meadows, and fields.
Online References:
References:
9/5/2010 · Nashua River Rail Trail, near Nashoba Hospital, Ayer, Massachusetts · ≈ 10 × 15″ (26 × 39 cm) 
ID is uncertain 
8/20/2010 · Nashua River Rail Trail, Ayer, Massachusetts · ≈ 2 × 3″ (5.8 × 7.8 cm) ID is uncertain 
11/7/2010 · Nashua River Rail Trail, Groton Center, Groton, Massachusetts · ≈ 1 × 2′ (41 × 62 cm) ID is uncertain 
11/7/2009 · Nashua River Rail Trail, Groton Center, Groton, Massachusetts ID is uncertain 
8/20/2010 · Nashua River Rail Trail, Ayer, Massachusetts ID is uncertain 
| Kingdom | Plantae | Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin) |
| Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients |
| Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms |
| Class | Liliopsida | Monocots (plants with a single seed leaf); includes the lily family |
| Subclass | Commelinidae | Dayflowers and spiderworts, and several others |
| Order | Cyperales | Flowering plants including grasses |
| Family | Poaceae | Grasses (but not sedges or rushes) |
| Genus | Aristida | Latin arista, “awn,” for the bristly appendage at the tip or dorsal surface of a grass floret’s lemma |
| Species | dichotoma | Forked in pairs, repeatedly dividing into pairs of branches |
Aristida dichotoma description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.
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