Briza minor

Annual quaking grass, small quaking grass, Small Quaking Grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Annual quaking grass is a naturalized annual found in northwestern California, central high rocky forests, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, central western California, southern California, western Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and desert regions near Rancho Mirage in open, shaded, or moist sites at elevations of 20 to 600 meters. Flowering from April to July, this grass produces delicate, nodding spikelets in light green to pale tan inflorescences that tremble gracefully with slight movement. Growing with slender stems 8 to 50 centimeters tall, it forms loose, open clusters that sway easily in the wind. Its leaf blades are 3 to 10 millimeters wide with elongated ligules measuring 3 to 13 millimeters long. The inflorescence typically contains more than 15 small, triangular to oval spikelets with 4 to 6 delicate florets.

Habitat: Shaded or moist, open sites

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 20-600 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRF, SN, GV, CW (exc SCoRI), SCo, WTR, PR, DSon (Rancho Mirage)

California counties: Alameda, Butte, Fresno, Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, Placer, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sonoma, Tulare, El Dorado, Tuolumne, Ventura, Yolo, Yuba, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Orange, Sacramento, Calaveras, Amador, Solano, Santa Barbara, Nevada, Merced, Mariposa, San Francisco, Sutter, Contra Costa, Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, Stanislaus, Riverside, San Benito, Del Norte, Trinity, Sierra

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