Elymus scribneri

Scribner's wheat grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.3

Scribner's wheat grass is a native perennial grass found in the Sierra Nevada, northern Sierra Nevada, and White and Inyo Mountains in rocky alpine areas at elevations of 2,900 to 4,200 meters. Flowering from July to August, this grass produces small spikelets with awns that curve strongly outward, creating a distinctive architectural appearance. Growing in tufted clumps with prostrate to decumbent stems 15 to 55 centimeters long, it forms dense clusters in high-elevation rocky habitats. Its narrow leaves are 1.5 to 4 millimeters wide, typically rolled or flat, with very short auricles less than 1 millimeter long. The grass produces 2 to 12 florets per spikelet, with lemmas bearing curved awns 15 to 30 millimeters long that give the plant a delicate, wispy texture.

Habitat: Rocky areas, alpine

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 2900-4200 m

Bioregions: SNH, n SNE, W&ampI

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