Plants perennial; loosely cespitose. Culms 30-80 cm, loosely branched
below; internodes hollow. Leaves cauline, mostly glabrous; sheaths
shorter than the internodes, remaining intact at maturity; ligules about
0.1 mm; blades 5-15 cm long, 0.8-1.5 mm wide, usually flat, those of
the innovations often sparsely pilose. Inflorescences narrowly racemose,
10-30 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, often nodding; nodes glabrous; lower pedicels
appressed. Spikelets usually 2(1-3) per node, 1 sessile or short-pedicellate
and 1 long-pedicellate. Glumes subequal, 6-9 mm, tan to purplish, 1-2-veined,
acute to awn-tipped, awns 0.5-1.5 mm; lower glumes frequently 2-keeled;
calluses 0.4-0.6 mm; lemmas 5-6 mm, light tan to lead-colored,
column not twisted, junction with the awns not conspicuous; awns not
disarticulating at maturity; central awns 10-15 mm, about twice as thick
as the lateral awns, reflexed from a semicircular bend; lateral awns
equal to or slightly shorter than the central awns, divaricate and slightly
contorted at the base; anthers 3, 2-3 mm, tan to brown. Caryopses
4-5 mm, chestnut-colored. 2n = unknown.
Aristida simpliciflora grows in wet savannahs, the upper portion of seepage
bogs, and the moister portion of ecotones between such bogs and the surrounding
dry uplands. It is restricted to the southeastern United States.
Aristida simpliciflora is sometimes confused with A.
mohri because both have reduced, spikelike inflorescences, but A.
mohri has lateral awns that are about as thick as the central awn, and its
spikelets are solitary.