Danthonia californica

California oat grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California oat grass is a native perennial grass found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, central western California, southern California mountains, southern peninsular region, and Modoc Plateau in moist meadows and open woodlands at elevations of 45 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from April to August, this grass produces pale green to straw-colored spikelets 14 to 25 millimeters long with delicate, spreading branches. Growing with stems 10 to 130 centimeters tall, it forms dense, flexible clumps with both basal and stem leaves. Its leaves are narrow, 2 to 5 millimeters wide, with flat blades that spread abruptly or bend backward, featuring hairy bases and margins. The grass produces distinctive lemmas with 2 to 5 millimeter teeth and 4 to 12 millimeter awns, giving it a feathery, textured appearance.

Habitat: Generally moist meadows, open woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: 45-2300 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, CW, SnBr, s PR, MP

California counties: Humboldt, Mendocino, Del Norte, San Luis Obispo, Lassen, San Mateo, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Placer, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Napa, Modoc, Trinity, Yuba, Shasta, Mariposa, Amador, Alameda, Butte, Fresno, Glenn, Lake, Marin, Monterey, Nevada, Plumas, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Tehama, Tulare, Contra Costa, Madera, Sierra, Colusa, Solano, San Bernardino, San Benito, Santa Barbara, Calaveras, San Diego, Yolo

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