Aristida purpurea var. parishii

Parish three-awn

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Parish three-awn is a native perennial grass found in southern California coastal regions, San Bernardino Mountains, and desert areas in dry slopes, plains, chaparral, and shrubland at elevations of 200 to 1,300 meters. Flowering from February to November, this grass produces reddish to straw-colored spikelets with distinctive awns. Growing with slender stems 15 to 25 centimeters tall, it has a characteristic clumping grass habit with stiff, straight branches. Its leaves are cauline, generally 10 to 20 centimeters long and mostly flat, with spikelets featuring lower glumes 7 to 11 millimeters long and upper glumes 10 to 15 millimeters long. The plant's most distinctive feature is its long, thin awns measuring 20 to 30 millimeters, which are approximately 0.2 to 0.3 millimeters wide at the base.

Habitat: dry slopes, plains, chaparral, shrubland

Bloom period: Feb-Nov

Elevation: 200-1300 m

Bioregions: SCo, SnBr, D

California counties: San Bernardino, Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara

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