Aristida dichotoma

Churchmouse three-awn

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Churchmouse three-awn is a naturalized annual grass found in northern Sierra Nevada foothills on granitic outcrops and sandy fields. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces delicate spikelets with distinctive awned seed heads. Growing with generally erect stems 15 to 60 centimeters tall, it has thin, flat leaf blades 3 to 10 centimeters long. Its lemmas feature a central awn 3 to 8 millimeters long that is characteristically coiled at the base, accompanied by shorter straight lateral awns. The plant's small anthers measure 2 to 3 millimeters in length, contributing to its fine, intricate structure.

Habitat: Uncommon. Granitic outcrops, sandy fields

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Bioregions: n SNF

California counties: Butte

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