Agrostis densiflora

California bent grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California bent grass is a California native perennial found in coastal bioregions including northern Coast, central Coast, and western San Francisco Bay in coastal bluffs and sandy soils at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering from May to August, this grass produces delicate pale green to white flowers in dense, cylindrical clusters approximately 2 to 10 centimeters long. Growing 9 to 85 centimeters tall with slender, erect stems, it forms clustered tufts with flat, narrow leaves 2 to 12 centimeters long and 2 to 10 millimeters wide. Its leaves have distinctive ligules 1.5 to 2 millimeters long, and each flower cluster contains minute spikelets with fine, acute-tipped glumes. The plant's flowers feature small anthers approximately 0.5 millimeters long and occasionally produce delicate, straight awns less than 3.5 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Coastal bluffs, sandy soils

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: NCo, CCo, w SnFrB

California counties: Humboldt, Marin, Mendocino, San Mateo, Yolo, Lake, Napa, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Mariposa, Del Norte

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