Elymus glaucus subsp. glaucus

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Blue wild rye is a California native perennial grass found in open areas, chaparral, woodland, and forest habitats throughout California at elevations up to 2,890 meters. Flowering from June to August, this grass produces pale greenish-blue flower clusters with distinctive awns 20 to 30 millimeters long. Growing in robust clumps with erect or slightly arching stems 30 to 100 centimeters tall, it forms dense grass patches. Its leaf blades are variable, ranging from nearly smooth to slightly hairy or rough to the touch, typically 10 to 30 centimeters long and 3 to 10 millimeters wide. The grass produces elongated seed heads with slender, spreading awns that give it a delicate, feathery appearance in late summer.

Habitat: Open areas, chaparral, woodland, forest

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: < 2890 m

Bioregions: CA

California counties: El Dorado, San Luis Obispo, Fresno, San Diego, Ventura, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange, Kern, Tuolumne, Mono, Tulare, Santa Clara, Amador, Alpine, Placer, Calaveras, Madera, Modoc, San Benito, Tehama, Yolo, Yuba, Alameda, Butte, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Marin, Lake, Lassen, Mariposa, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, San Francisco, San Mateo, Sonoma, Sutter, Trinity, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Colusa, Stanislaus

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