Purple Reedgrass

Calamagrostis purpurascens is a large, clump forming, perennial grass; growing 30–80 cm (12–31 in) tall. It grows from short rhizomes and has dense, often purpled tinted flower heads that are 4 to 13 cm (1.6 to 5.1 in) long. It has one flowered spikelets, two subequal glumes, and lemma with a dorsal awn. The awn is longer than the glum and sharply bent, and longer than the tip of the spikelet. Flowering stems have typically one or two leaves.

Calamagrostis purpurascens is native from arctic Greenland, to much of Canada (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Yukon Territory) and the western and northern U.S. (Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming). It is rare and scattered in the southern U.S. states, such as Louisiana, where it is a post-glacial relict. Further south, C. purpurascens is also known in Chile, where it was recorded by Rodolfo Amando Philippi in 1860. Philippi gave it the name Deyeuxia robusta, now relegated to synonymy. It is also found in Asia (in eastern Siberia).

Carterocephalus palaemon (arctic skipper) butterflies eat the nectar from C. purpurascens flowers, and their caterpillars feed on the shoots. Ovis canadensis (bighorn sheep) are known to graze this grass.

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