Collected August 17, 1957 by J. A. Downs. Joint release of New Mexico and Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station and Soil Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.Western wheatgrass is a cool season, rhizomatous, sod-forming, perennial grass. Culms are erect, 30-60 cm tall with creeping rhizomes; blades are firm, stiff, mostly flat when fresh, involute on drying, strongly nerved, scabrous, to 4 mm wide and tapering to a sharp point. Flowering spikes are erect, 7-15cm long; spikelets are closely inbricate, 6-10 flowered, 1-2 cm long; glumes are rigid, tapering to a short awn, and are faintly nerved. Entire plant is usually glaucous and gray-green in color.