Deschampsia danthonioides
Annual hair grass
Photo by Chez Brungraber
Family: Poaceae · Type: Grass · Native
Deschampsia danthonioides (Annual hair grass) is a native California grass in the Poaceae family, recognized by annual habit and bent awns.
Annual hair grass is a California native annual found in California Floristic Province (excluding Tehama and northern Channel Islands), Modoc Plateau, and eastern Mojave Desert in moist to drying open sites, meadows, streambanks, and vernal pools at elevations up to 2,750 meters. Flowering from March to August, this delicate grass produces pale green to purplish spikes with spikelets featuring purple-tipped glumes. Growing with slender stems 12 to 60 centimeters tall, it forms loosely clustered bunches with fine, narrow leaves. Its basal leaves are generally 1 to 9 centimeters long and 1 to 2 millimeters wide, typically inrolled and glabrous with short ligules. The distinctive awned spikelets have lemmas 2 to 3 millimeters long, with bent awns 4 to 9 millimeters extending below the middle of the lemma.
Identification and appearance
Key characters: 5 sympatric species; distinguished by annual habit and bent awns
Habitat and range
Habitat: Moist to drying, open sites, meadows, streambanks, vernal pools, occasionally in alkali soil
Elevation: < 2750 m
California counties: Humboldt, Tulare, Alameda, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Los Angeles, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Stanislaus, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Ventura, Yolo, Alpine, Madera, Orange, Placer, Sonoma, Mono, Sutter, Yuba, Glenn, Inyo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Del Norte
Outside California: Alaska, northeastern United States, Arizona, Baja California, South America
Bloom period
Deschampsia danthonioides blooms Mar-Aug.
How to tell it apart
vs Oloptum: Deschampsia has hairy spikelet extensions and thread-like basal leaves; Oloptum lacks the fuzzy extension and has wiry, needle-like leaves.; vs Festuca: Deschampsia has airy, open panicles with fuzzy spikelet extensions; Festuca has denser flower clusters without hairy extensions.; vs Panicum: Deschampsia forms basal leaf tufts with hairy spikelet extensions; Panicum has stem leaves and smooth, rounded spikelets.; vs Melica: Deschampsia has hairy spikelet extensions; Melica has a distinctive club-shaped sterile floret cluster at spikelet tips.; vs Poa: Deschampsia has prominent hairy extensions beyond florets; Poa has boat-shaped lemmas with cobwebby hairs at the base only.
Frequently asked questions
Is Deschampsia danthonioides native to California?
Yes. Deschampsia danthonioides is native to California (recorded as native).
When does Deschampsia danthonioides bloom?
Deschampsia danthonioides blooms Mar-Aug.
Where in California does Deschampsia danthonioides grow?
Deschampsia danthonioides occurs in Humboldt, Tulare, Alameda, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa and other counties, at elevations of < 2750 m.
What plant family does Deschampsia danthonioides belong to?
Deschampsia danthonioides is in the Poaceae family, genus Deschampsia.
What habitat does Deschampsia danthonioides grow in?
Deschampsia danthonioides grows in Moist to drying, open sites, meadows, streambanks, vernal pools, occasionally in alkali soil.
Related species
Other California species in the same genus, family, or bioregion.
Sources: Jepson eFlora · Index of California Plant Names · CalPhotos
Last updated 2026-10-07
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Cal-IPC, and more.