GREEN NEEDLEGRASS--Stipa viridula
Description:  Green needlegrass is a cool-season, perennial bunchgrass varying from 18 to 36 inches tall.  Panicles are somewhat compact.  Awns are usually twice bent, somewhat curly when mature, and roughly 1 inch long.  Florets turn dark brown and shiny when ripe.  Leaves are often rolled, thread-like toward the tip, 4 to 12 inches long, glabrous, and with prominent veins above.  The ligule is a smooth or hairy membrane.
Distribution, habitat:  This grass is an abundant native of the northern Great Plains and is found from Alberta and Saskatchewan to Illinois, Kansas, Arizona, and eastern Washington.  Green needlegrass grows on medium to fine-textured soils across South Dakota, reaching its greatest prominence in high seral status ranges.  On medium textured soils, green needlegrass grows with western wheatgrass, needleandthread, and blue grama.  On finer textured soils, needleandthread drops out, and on even finer soils blue grama disappears, leaving green needlegrass and western wheatgrass as dominants.
Comments:  Green needlegrass, also called feather bunchgrass, is nutritious, palatable, and decreases under grazing use.  Awns are not troublesome to livestock as with some other needlegrasses.  Green needlegrass is frequently used for revegetation; 'Green stipagrass' and 'Lodorm' are common varieties.  Grazing wildlife consume green needlegrass; birds and rodents feed on the seed.
Picture and information can be found on pages 74 and 75 of Grassland Plants of South Dakota and the Northern Great Plains, by James R. Johnson and Gary E. Larson.  Published in 1999 by South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD.