Bromus sitchensis var. maritimus

Maritime brome

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Maritime brome is a California native perennial found in coastal bioregions including North Coast, Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, northern southern California, and Channel Islands in dunes and coastal meadows at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces pale green to light brown flowers in dense spikelets 20 to 40 millimeters long with overlapping branches. Growing 20 to 80 centimeters tall with erect to ascending stems, it forms a robust grass-like clump with smooth, occasionally rough leaf blades. Its leaves have broad blades 3 to 12 millimeters wide with short ligules 1 to 6 millimeters long, creating a distinctive grassy appearance. The spikelets feature hairy lemmas with slender awns 3.5 to 7 millimeters long, giving the plant a delicate, textured look.

Habitat: Dunes, coastal meadows

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: NCo, CCo, SnFrB, n SCo, ChI

California counties: Humboldt, Marin, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, Ventura, Mendocino, Monterey, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, San Diego, Alameda

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