Elymus mollis subsp. mollis

American dune grass, sea lyme grass, American Lyme Grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

American dune grass is a California native perennial found in northern coastal and central coastal bioregions on sandy beaches at elevations generally below 10 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces pale green to white flowers in elongated grass heads 12 to 34 centimeters long. Growing with robust rhizomatous stems 50 to 170 centimeters tall that are densely hairy near the flowering stalks, it spreads extensively across beach environments. Its leaves are long and narrow, measuring 10 to 95 centimeters in length and 3 to 15 millimeters wide, with slightly rough upper surfaces. The plant develops distinctive grass spikelets with hairy lance-shaped glumes and densely hairy lemmas that are sharp or awn-tipped.

Habitat: Sandy beaches

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: generally < 10 m

Bioregions: NCo, CCo

California counties: Humboldt, Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Mateo

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