Aristida purpurea var. longiseta

Red three-awn

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Red three-awn is a California native perennial found in the San Bernardino Mountains and desert regions on disturbed ground, dry slopes, plains, and shrubland at elevations below 1,800 meters. Flowering from May to November, this plant produces reddish-purple flowers with delicate, drooping grass-like inflorescences up to 15 centimeters long. Growing with slender stems 30 to 60 centimeters tall, it forms tufted clumps characteristic of bunch grasses. Its leaf blades are 4 to 16 centimeters long, with distinctive three-parted awns (hair-like bristles) that can extend 40 to 140 millimeters from each seed. The plant's dramatic, hair-like awns create a feathery, wind-catching appearance that helps disperse its seeds across arid landscapes.

Habitat: Disturbed ground, dry slopes, plains, shrubland

Bloom period: May-Nov

Elevation: < 1800 m

Bioregions: SnBr, D

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