Elymus condensatus

Giant wild-rye

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Giant wild-rye is a California native perennial found in the Central Western, Southwestern, and Mojave Desert bioregions on dry slopes and open woodland at elevations up to 1,830 meters. Flowering from June to August, this grass produces pale green to straw-colored flower clusters in dense panicles 17 to 44 centimeters long. Growing in tufted clumps with robust stems 1.1 to 3.5 meters tall and 6 to 10 millimeters wide at the base, it forms impressive grassland bunches. Its broad leaves are distinctively wide, measuring 15 to 35 millimeters across, with minimal to no auricles or ligules. The plant produces spikelets with 3 to 7 florets, each featuring awl-like glumes and lemmas that can be smooth or slightly hairy.

Habitat: dry slopes, open woodland

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: < 1830 m

Bioregions: CW, SW, DMoj

California counties: Los Angeles, Kern, San Bernardino, Ventura, Riverside, San Diego, Orange, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Lassen, Mono, Humboldt, Monterey, Mendocino, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Siskiyou, San Benito, Shasta, San Francisco, Sonoma

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