Bromus hordeaceus

Soft chess

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Soft chess is a naturalized annual grass found in California in fields and disturbed areas at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces pale green to straw-colored flowers in dense, erect to spreading inflorescences 2.5 to 13 centimeters long. Growing 11 to 65 centimeters tall with hairy stems and an upright habit, it forms dense clusters of grass-like growth. Its leaves are soft and hairy, with narrow blades 1.5 to 5 millimeters wide and short ligules 1 to 1.5 millimeters long. The slender spikelets feature awns 4 to 10 millimeters long, giving the plant a delicate, feathery appearance in grassland settings.

Habitat: Fields, disturbed areas

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 1000(2560) m

Bioregions: CA

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

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