Deschampsia elongata
Slender hair grass, Slender Hair Grass
(c) Matt Lavin, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · licence
Family: Poaceae · Type: Grass · Native
Deschampsia elongata (Slender hair grass) is a native California grass in the Poaceae family, recognized by very narrow inflorescence with appressed spikelets.
Slender hair grass is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, the high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, central western California, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and Great Basin in wet sites, meadows, lakeshores, and shaded slopes at elevations up to 3,100 meters. Flowering from May to September, this grass produces green to tan flowers with occasional purple tips in delicate, narrow clusters less than 1 centimeter wide. Growing in dense clumps with stems 10 to 70 centimeters tall, it forms graceful tufted clusters. Its leaves are flat to slightly rolled, 4 to 8 centimeters long and approximately 1 millimeter wide, with distinctive ligules 2 to 8 millimeters long that are acute to acuminate. The spikelets feature lemmas with an awn 1 to 5 millimeters long, generally straight and attached near the middle of the lemma.
Identification and appearance
Key characters: 5 sympatric species; distinguished by very narrow inflorescence with appressed spikelets
Habitat and range
Habitat: Wet sites, meadows, lakeshores, shaded slopes
Elevation: < 3100 m
California counties: Humboldt, Mendocino, Alameda, Alpine, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Inyo, Lake, Los Angeles, Marin, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Del Norte, Kern, Lassen, Mariposa, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Amador, Sierra, Santa Barbara, Modoc, Shasta, Yuba, Madera, San Francisco, Yolo, San Benito, Solano
Outside California: Alaska, Wyoming, Baja California, South America
Bloom period
Deschampsia elongata blooms May-Sep.
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 elongata native to California?
Yes. Deschampsia elongata is native to California (recorded as native).
When does Deschampsia elongata bloom?
Deschampsia elongata blooms May-Sep.
Where in California does Deschampsia elongata grow?
Deschampsia elongata occurs in Humboldt, Mendocino, Alameda, Alpine, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa and other counties, at elevations of < 3100 m.
What plant family does Deschampsia elongata belong to?
Deschampsia elongata is in the Poaceae family, genus Deschampsia.
What habitat does Deschampsia elongata grow in?
Deschampsia elongata grows in Wet sites, meadows, lakeshores, shaded slopes.
Related species
Other California species in the same genus, family, or bioregion.
- Deschampsia sp. — Hair grass
- Deschampsia bolanderi — Scribner's grass
- Deschampsia cespitosa — Tufted hair grass
- Deschampsia cespitosa subsp. beringensis
- Deschampsia cespitosa subsp. cespitosa
- Deschampsia cespitosa subsp. holciformis
- Desmazeria rigida — Ferngrass
- Desmazeria sp.
- Digitaria californica var. californica — Arizona cottontop
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.