Desmazeria rigida

Ferngrass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Ferngrass is a naturalized annual grass found in southern California coastal regions including Santa Catalina Island, southern Coast Ranges, and San Francisco Bay Area in open, often sandy sites at elevations below 700 meters. Flowering from April to September, this plant produces pale translucent spikelets with delicate, narrow inflorescences 4 to 8 centimeters long. Growing with generally erect stems 10 to 60 centimeters tall, it has smooth, glabrous green stems that spread widely. Its narrow leaf blades are flat, measuring 2 to 25 centimeters long and just 1 to 3 millimeters wide, with a fine, delicate texture. The spikelets feature 5 to 12 florets with translucent tips that appear acute or softly pointed.

Habitat: Open, often sandy sites

Bloom period: Apr-Sep

Elevation: < 700 m

Bioregions: s NCo, CCo, SnFrB, SCo, s ChI (Santa Catalina Island)

California counties: Santa Barbara, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Marin, Monterey, San Mateo, Alameda, Sacramento, Butte, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, San Francisco

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