Calamagrostis nutkaensis

Pacific reed grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Pacific reed grass is a California native perennial found in northern coastal, central coastal, and San Francisco Bay bioregions in wet areas, beaches, dunes, coastal woodland, and inland marshes at elevations below 1,070 meters. Flowering from May to August, this grass produces pale green to whitish flowers in narrow, open inflorescences 12 to 30 centimeters long. Growing in dense tufts with stout rhizomes, it develops robust stems 6 to 11 decimeters tall that are generally unbranched below. Its leaf blades are flat and 4 to 10 millimeters wide, with smooth upper surfaces and a distinctive truncate ligule mostly hidden by an expanded collar. The plant forms delicate, slightly twisted awns 1 to 3 millimeters long emerging from its lemmas, giving it a subtle, textured appearance in coastal and wetland environments.

Habitat: Wet areas, beaches, dunes, coastal woodland, inland marshes

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 1070 m

Bioregions: NCo, CCo, SnFrB

California counties: Humboldt, Alameda, Del Norte, Marin, Mendocino, San Mateo, Sonoma, Monterey, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou

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