Aristida ternipes var. gentilis

Hook three-awn, Hook Three-Awn

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Hook three-awn is a California native perennial grass found in the northern Coast Ranges, southern Sierra Nevada foothills, Central Valley, southern California coastal areas, northern Channel Islands, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and eastern Mojave Desert in dry hills and slopes at elevations of 100 to 1,350 meters. Flowering from May to November, this grass produces pale greenish-yellow to tan spikelets with distinctive three-parted awns. Growing with stems 25 to 80 centimeters tall, ranging from prostrate to erect and sometimes forming bushy clusters, it has flexible grass blades 5 to 40 centimeters long. Its leaf blades are flat to slightly rolled, with sparse long hairs at the base, giving the plant a delicate, wispy appearance. The spikelets feature glumes 9 to 15 millimeters long with awns that vary in length, creating an intricate and characteristic silhouette.

Habitat: dry hills, slopes

Bloom period: May-Nov

Elevation: 100-1350 m

Bioregions: NCoRI, s SNF, GV, SCo, n ChI (Santa Cruz Island), TR, PR, DMoj

California counties: Tulare, Fresno, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Kern, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Colusa, Yolo, Ventura, Glenn, Butte, Sutter, Solano, Tehama, Mariposa, Orange, Madera

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