Elymus caput-medusae

Medusa head

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Medusa head is a naturalized annual grass found in the Klamath Ranges, North Coast, California Ranges, Sierra Nevada Foothills, Central Valley, Southern Coast Ranges, and Modoc Plateau in disturbed areas at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces pale green to straw-colored spikelets with long, spreading awns that give it a distinctive tangled appearance. Growing with decumbent to ascending slender stems 20 to 70 centimeters tall, it has thin, narrow leaves that are slightly rolled and long-ciliate near the base. Its leaves are narrow, approximately 1 to 3 millimeters wide, with tiny membranous ligules less than one millimeter long. The plant's most distinctive feature is its dramatic seed heads with stiff, erect to spreading awns measuring 30 to 100 millimeters long, creating a medusa-like tangle of bristles.

Habitat: Disturbed areas

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaR, SNF, GV, SCoR, MP

California counties: Tehama, Placer, Siskiyou, Solano, Yuba, Ventura, Nevada, Calaveras, El Dorado, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Modoc, Butte, Shasta, Plumas, Merced, Glenn, Sutter, Lake, Lassen, Contra Costa, San Benito, Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, San Diego

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