Eriocoma arida is a species of grass known by the common name Mormon needlegrass.

Eriocoma arida is a tuft-forming perennial bunchgrass without rhizomes.

The inflorescence is a panicle often partly enfolded in the narrow sheath of the uppermost leaf.

[2] Eriocoma arida ranges across the southwestern United States, from California's Mojave Desert through Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico to Texas, and in the states of Nuevo León and Hidalgo in northeastern Mexico.

[1] It is a resident of high desert scrub and woodland habitat at some elevation.