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Prairie remnant.

MFO key:
1b Spikelets at least sparsely pubescent toward their margins.

4b Widest leaf blades less than 15 mm broad.

8a Longest leaf blades at least 20 times as long as wide. The plants not forming rosettes of short stubby leaves.

9b (I don't think I'm seeing a prolonged boat-shaped beak on the spikelet)...so Second glume and sterile lemma barely if at all prolonged beyond mature fertile lemma, the mature spikelet ± blunt (if shortly beaked, then only ca. 2.5 mm long); spikelets (2–) 2.2–3.1 (–3.3) mm long.

For couplet 10 I am uncertain; largest spikelets are 3.2-3.3mm long, panicle is narrow, but pedicels are longer than 1mm for many spikelets. Looking at some other online resources I'm not sure the pedicel length is definitive and might tend to discount it. I would lean to D. perlongum, especially because the leaf arrangement of D. linearifolium is distinct and not seeing that here, but not sure.

Collected.

Sandy opening among cedars, a few plants.

Referring to Michigan Flora Online (https://michiganflora.net/genus.aspx?id=Aristida) Identification for this species considers a single nerve on the glume and bent (not spiraled) awns less than 3.5cm.

Michigan Flora then differentiates A. longespica from A. necopina (annual, not reported from Ontario) and A. purpurascens by the length of the middle awn (7-12mm vs. 15-33mm). However, referring to other resources that recognize A. longespica var. longespica and var. geniculata (https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/aristida/longespica/) have middle awn lengths of 1-10(14mm) and (8-)12-27mm respectively. This plant has middle awns to ~24mm, so I think A. longespica var. geniculata (which, as it turns out, is reported from the area), seems like a good fit.

M.J. Oldham 21418; specimen record, replicates at MICH, TRT, MMMN, NHIC# 03442, +2; identifed by M.J. Oldham, !A.A. Reznicek March 2004, !D.B. Robson Nov 2013 as Corispermum villosum ; local in disturbed sandy waste ground near sand pit; "fruits wingless, infl. clavate" - A.A. Reznicek March 2004

M.J. Oldham 10164; specimen record, replicates at DAO, MICH 1417427; identified as Muhlenbergia asperifolia by Michael J. Oldham, !S.J. Darbyshire Oct. 1990; abandoned gravel pit, local (not growing along nearby railway tracks); South Dumfries Township

M.J. Oldham 11932; specimen record, replicates at MICH, TRTE, WAT, UWO, NHIC# 11930; identified as Trichostema dichotomum by M.J. Oldham, !AA Reznicek Nov. 1990; disturbed ground, railway ballast near former railway yard; mostly in fruit, a few still flowering, c. 100 plants, but very local. Specimen cited in Oldham, M.J., W.G. Stewart, and D. McLeod. 1991. Additions to "A Guide to the Flora of Elgin County, Ontario" for 1990. The Cardinal April 1991: 17-22.

M.J. Oldham 11924; specimen record, replicates at DAO, TRTE, WAT, MICH, UWO, NHIC# 00532, SAT 27514; identified as Aristida dichotoma by M.J. Oldham, !AA Reznicek Nov. 1990; disturbed ground, railway ballast near former RR yard, with Bulbostylis; rare & local, dupes also to CAN, das, dfb

M.J. Oldham, D. McLeod & H. Schraeder 14165; specimen record, replicates at MICH 1380064, UWO; identified as Carex muskingumensis by M.J. Oldham, !AA Reznicek; moist, clay floodplain woods; new to Middlesex Co., rare and local