Calamagrostis purpurascens

Purple reed grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Purple reed grass is a California native perennial found in the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, northern eastern Sierra Nevada, and White and Inyo Mountains in rocky slopes, grasslands, meadows, and forests at elevations of 1,300 to 4,000 meters. Flowering from July to September, this grass produces delicate purplish-green flower clusters in dense, narrow inflorescences 4 to 15 centimeters long. Growing in tufted clumps with stems 10 to 80 centimeters tall, it forms compact bunches with short rhizomes extending 1 to 4 centimeters underground. Its leaf blades are narrow, 2 to 5 millimeters wide, flat, with a smooth lower surface and soft-hairy upper surface, and feature a ligule 2 to 6 millimeters long. The plant's distinctive feature is its twisted, bent awn (grass bristle) extending 6 to 7.5 millimeters beyond the spikelet, giving the grass a delicate, feathery appearance.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, grassland, meadows, forest, generally on sandy soils

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: 1300-4000 m

Bioregions: CaRH, SN, n SNE (Sweetwater Mtns), W&ampI

California counties: Fresno, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, Tulare, Siskiyou, Madera, Glenn, Tuolumne, Tehama, Alpine, Mendocino, Del Norte, Marin

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