Elymus ×gouldii

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Gould's wildrye is a native perennial grass found in the Central Valley, central western California, southern California coastal areas, San Bernardino Mountains, and Peninsular Ranges in open areas, often on saline soils at elevations below 1,615 meters. Flowering from May to July, this grass produces spikelets in dense clusters 12 to 40 centimeters long. Growing with sturdy stems 65 to 210 centimeters tall and 3.5 to 5 millimeters wide at the base, it appears generally smooth and upright. Its leaf blades are 6 to 15 millimeters wide, smooth and glabrous, with tiny ligules less than 2 millimeters long. The spikelets feature prominent glumes extending beyond the lower floret, with lemmas bearing short awns up to 2 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Open areas, often saline soils

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: < 1615 m

Bioregions: ScV, CW, SCo, SnBr, PR

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