Bromus sitchensis

Sitka brome, Alaska Brome

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Sitka brome is a California native perennial grass found in southwestern California on rocky bluffs, cliffs, meadows, forest edges, and disturbed areas at elevations below 1,670 meters. Flowering from March to June, this grass produces green to tan spikelets 20 to 41 millimeters long with delicate, arching branches. Growing 20 to 145 centimeters tall with an occasionally branching habit, it develops erect to nodding flowering stems that can bloom even in its first year. Its leaves feature distinctive ligules 1 to 6 millimeters long and blades that range from glabrous to slightly scabrous or hairy, measuring 1 to 12 millimeters wide. The plant's spikelets have strongly keeled lemmas with awns 3.5 to 15 millimeters long, giving the grass a graceful, textured appearance.

Habitat: Rocky bluffs, cliffs, meadows, forest edges, disturbed areas

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 1670 m.

Bioregions: SW

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