Agrostis stolonifera

Creeping bent

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Creeping bent is a naturalized perennial herb found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, northern Sierra Nevada, central western California, southwestern California, White and Inyo Mountains, and desert mountains in ditches, lake margins, and marshes at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces small, delicate green-white flowers in dense, elliptical inflorescences 3 to 15 centimeters long. Growing with decumbent to erect stems 8 to 60 centimeters tall, it forms distinctive mat-like colonies with long stolons spreading 5 to 100 centimeters. Its flat leaves are 2 to 10 centimeters long and 2 to 5 millimeters wide, with ligules 2 to 5 millimeters long that are distinctly longer than wide. The plant's compact growth and spreading habit make it particularly adaptable to wet, open environments.

Habitat: Ditches, lake margins, marshes

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, n SN, CW, SW (exc ChI), W&ampI, DMtns

California counties: Humboldt, Contra Costa, Tuolumne, Amador, Los Angeles, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Santa Clara, Alpine, Butte, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Inyo, Kern, Lassen, Mono, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Tehama, Ventura, Monterey, Lake, Napa, San Mateo, Trinity, Shasta, Yuba, Yolo, Calaveras, Modoc, Tulare, Sierra, Alameda, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Madera, Solano, Stanislaus, Santa Cruz

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