Ehrharta calycina

Perennial veldt grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Perennial veldt grass is a naturalized grass found in southern North Coast Ranges, southern North Coast interior, Sacramento Valley, southern Coast Ranges, and southwestern California in sandy soils at elevations generally below 500 meters. Flowering from March to July, this grass produces pale green to purplish spikelets in open panicles 5 to 25 centimeters long. Growing with erect stems 30 to 75 centimeters tall, it spreads through rhizomatous growth and forms dense clumps. Its leaf blades are narrow, less than one centimeter wide and 5 to 20 centimeters long, with purple-tinged sheaths and small ciliate auricles. The spikelets are 4 to 8 millimeters long, with soft-hairy sterile lemmas and relatively equal glumes that become purplish as they mature.

Habitat: Sandy soils

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: generally < 500 m

Bioregions: s NCoRO, s NCoRI, ScV, SCoRO, SW

California counties: Los Angeles, San Diego, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Orange, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Sonoma, Marin, Monterey, Del Norte, San Benito, Yolo, Santa Cruz

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