Aristida adscensionis

Sixweeks three-awn

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Native

Sixweeks three-awn is a native annual grass found in coastal California, the southern Channel Islands, western Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and desert regions at elevations below 1,400 meters in disturbed areas, dry open places, and rocky shrublands. Flowering from January to November, this plant produces delicate, pale green to tan flower clusters with distinctive three-part awns. Growing with slender, branched stems 20 to 80 centimeters tall, it spreads in loosely clustered formations. Its narrow leaves are less than 15 centimeters long, tightly rolled into thin, thread-like blades. The plant's seed heads feature asymmetrical glumes and lemmas with three nearly equal awns measuring 7 to 20 millimeters long, creating a distinctive whispy, feathery appearance.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, dry, open places, rocky sites, shrubland

Bloom period: Jan-Nov

Elevation: < 1400 m

Bioregions: CCo, SCo, s ChI, WTR, PR, D

California counties: San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial, Orange, San Luis Obispo, Inyo, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Kern, San Benito, Shasta, Modoc, Humboldt, Santa Cruz, Tulare

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