Authors: Griseb.  

Botanical Description

Critesion pubiflorum subsp. halophilum). Neat, low, tussock-forming perennial. Leaves glaucous, linear, flat, 1.5-2.5mm wide, but usually strongly incurled at the margins, glabrous except for downy leaf sheaths. Flower spikes a striking, shiny, violety-brown-black, 3.5-5cm in length, the dark awns may be up to 1cm long. Var. halophilum, has spikelets 1.3-2cm long with the longest central awn 6-10mm, summer in the wild. Peru and Bolivia, south to northern Patagonia in dry, alpine steppe flats and fields, damp soil around flushes, altiplano moorland and salt pans (salars), often as a local dominant at 1800-4500m according to latitude. H.h. var. breviaristatum is a dwarf form 5-15cm tall with 2-3cm long spikes and proportionally smaller spikelets with awns not exceeding 6mm. Central and southern Andean Argentina, rare.