Aegilops triuncialis

Barbed goat grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Barbed goat grass is a naturalized annual grass found in southern North Coast Ranges, California Rocky Forest, northern and central Sierra Nevada Foothills, Sacramento Valley, and northern Central Western California in disturbed sites, cultivated fields, and roadsides at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from May to July, this grass produces pale green to tan spikelets with distinctively long, barbed awns up to 8 centimeters long. Growing with slender stems 17 to 45 centimeters tall, it forms compact, cylindrical clusters that break apart at the base of the spikelets when mature. Its leaf blades are narrow, measuring 1.5 to 7 centimeters long and only 2 to 3 millimeters wide, with lance-ovate fertile spikelets featuring 3 to 5 florets. The plant's most distinctive feature is its multiple-awned spikelets, with glumes bearing 2 to 3 sharp, spreading awns that can extend up to 10 millimeters from the lemma.

Habitat: Disturbed sites, cultivated fields, roadsides

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: s NCoR, CaRF, n&ampc SNF, ScV, n CW

California counties: Calaveras, Butte, El Dorado, Marin, Mendocino, Nevada, San Diego, Solano, Tuolumne, San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, Shasta, Los Angeles, Yolo, Yuba, Colusa, Placer, Amador, Sacramento, Napa, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Lake, Glenn, Trinity, Alameda, Tehama, Lassen, Stanislaus, Sutter

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.