Agrostis capillaris

Colonial bent

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Colonial bent is a naturalized perennial grass found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada, Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, and southern California coastal regions in roadsides and open, disturbed places at elevations below 1,900 meters. Flowering from July to September, this grass produces delicate, open panicles with thread-like branches creating a soft, airy appearance. Growing with slender stems 10 to 75 centimeters tall and spreading through short stolons or rhizomes, it forms loose, spreading clumps. Its leaf blades are flat, 3 to 10 centimeters long and 1 to 5 millimeters wide, with distinctive ligules that are wider than long. The plant's small spikelets have glumes 2 to 3 millimeters long and lemmas occasionally featuring a short awn near the tip.

Habitat: Roadsides, open, disturbed places

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: < 1900 m

Bioregions: KR, CaR, n&ampc SN, CCo, SnFrB, SCo

California counties: Humboldt, Contra Costa, Santa Barbara, Alameda, Marin, Mendocino, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Ventura, San Mateo, Sonoma, Monterey, Placer, El Dorado, Modoc, Tuolumne, Siskiyou, San Diego, Orange, Nevada, Lassen, Fresno, Butte, Amador, Plumas, Yolo, Sacramento, Mariposa, Santa Cruz, Alpine, Del Norte, Glenn, Lake, Solano, Trinity, San Luis Obispo, Mono, Sierra

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