Chloris gayana

Rhodes grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Rhodes grass is a naturalized perennial grass found in the Central Valley and Southern California Coast, occurring in disturbed areas at elevations below 300 meters. Flowering throughout the year, this grass produces light brown to brown-orange spikelets 3 to 5 millimeters long with delicate hairy-tufted lemma margins. Growing with stoloniferous stems 20 to 50 centimeters tall, it spreads readily in open disturbed landscapes. Its leaves are long and narrow, measuring 25 to 50 centimeters in length and 3 to 9 millimeters wide, with hairy ligules and glabrous to slightly rough sheaths. The grass develops distinctive digitate inflorescences with 9 to 30 erect branches, each 8 to 15 centimeters long.

Habitat: Disturbed areas

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: GV, SCo, expected elsewhere

California counties: San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Riverside, Tulare, Merced, Fresno, Kern, Ventura, Madera, Stanislaus, Colusa, Yolo, Imperial

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