Bromus diandrus

Ripgut grass, Ripgut Grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Ripgut grass is a naturalized annual grass found in California in open, generally disturbed areas at elevations below 2,170 meters. Flowering from February to July, this grass produces pale straw-colored flowers in loose, spreading clusters 15 to 25 centimeters long with distinctively nodding lower branches. Growing 15 to 120 centimeters tall with erect to spreading stems, it develops an open, branching structure with prominent seed heads. Its leaf blades are 2 to 7 millimeters wide, covered in soft hairs, with a small ligule 1 to 3 millimeters long. The seeds have characteristic long awns 30 to 65 millimeters in length, which give the plant its common name "ripgut" due to their ability to easily penetrate animal fur and skin.

Habitat: Open, generally disturbed areas

Bloom period: Feb-Jul

Elevation: < 2170 m

Bioregions: CA

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

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