Eleusine tristachya

Three-spiked goose grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Three-spiked goose grass is a naturalized annual grass found in disturbed areas of northern California Sierra Nevada foothills, Sacramento Valley, southern Coast Ranges, and southern California coastal regions at elevations below 650 meters. Flowering from May to October, this plant produces pale green to whitish spikelets clustered in slender, finger-like branches. Growing with ascending stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, it forms loose, spreading clumps in open ground. Its leaf blades are narrow, measuring 6 to 25 centimeters long and only 1 to 4 millimeters wide, with a delicate, grass-like appearance. Individual spikelets are compact, measuring 8 to 10 millimeters long with overlapping pale green glumes.

Habitat: Disturbed areas

Bloom period: May-Oct

Elevation: < 650 m

Bioregions: n&ampc SNF, ScV, SCoRO, SCo

California counties: Amador, San Joaquin, Riverside, Glenn, Monterey, Solano, San Benito, Sacramento, Stanislaus, Yuba, Merced, Contra Costa, San Luis Obispo, Yolo

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