Bromus sitchensis var. carinatus

California brome, California Brome

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California brome is a native perennial grass found in coastal prairies, openings in chaparral, plains, and open oak and pine woodland at elevations below 3,500 meters. Flowering from April to August, this grass produces delicate, drooping spikelets 20 to 40 millimeters long with pale green to tan coloration. Growing 50 to 100 centimeters tall with erect to ascending stems, it forms dense clusters with spreading lower branches. Its leaves feature narrow blades 3 to 12 millimeters wide and distinctive ligules 2 to 3 millimeters long. The plant produces lemmas with soft, uniform hairiness and slender awns 8 to 15 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Coastal prairies, openings in chaparral, plains, open oak and pine woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: < 3500 m

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

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