Aira caryophyllea

Silver hair grass, Silver Hair Grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Silver hair grass is a naturalized annual found in northwestern California, western Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, central western California, and eastern southwestern California in sandy soils and open or disturbed sites at elevations below 1,900 meters. Flowering from April to June, this grass produces delicate, silvery-white flower clusters in open panicles up to 1.5 centimeters wide. Growing with slender stems 6 to 45 centimeters tall that are generally smooth and occasionally slightly hairy near the nodes, it has a delicate, airy appearance. Its leaf sheaths are slightly rough with short, minutely scabrous ligules, and the narrow grass blades emerge in a light, feathery manner. The small spikelets are 2.4 to 3.5 millimeters long, with slender awns approximately 3 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Sandy soils, open or disturbed sites

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: < 1900 m

Bioregions: NW, w CaR, SN, GV, CW, e SW

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

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