Bouteloua trifida

Three-awned grama, Three-Awned Grama

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.3

Three-awned grama is a native perennial grass found in northern and eastern Mojave Desert Mountains, primarily on dry, rocky, generally calcareous slopes and washes at elevations of 200 to 1,600 meters. Flowering from March to September, this delicate grass produces small ascending spikelets with pale green to tan flowers. Growing with ascending to erect stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall, it sometimes develops short rhizomes and can occasionally flower in its first year. Its narrow leaves are typically less than 5 centimeters long and extremely slender, measuring less than 1.5 millimeters wide. Each plant produces distinctive branch clusters with 8 to 24 spikelets, characterized by short awns 2 to 8 millimeters long emerging from the grass blades.

Habitat: Dry, rocky, generally calcareous slopes, crevices, washes, scrub

Bloom period: Mar-Sep

Elevation: 200-1600 m

Bioregions: n&ampe DMoj (mostly DMtns)

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Riverside

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