Elymus sierrae

Sierra wildrye

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Sierra wildrye is a California native perennial found in the high Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada Mountains on rocky slopes, ridges, and in conifer forest at elevations of 1,800 to 3,530 meters. Flowering from July to August, this grass produces subtle greenish-white flower spikes 4 to 15 centimeters long with distinctive curving awns. Growing in dense tufts with prostrate or decumbent stems 20 to 50 centimeters long, it forms compact clumps in alpine and subalpine environments. Its leaves are narrow, flat, and 1 to 5 millimeters wide, with very small auricles less than 1 millimeter long and a tiny ligule. The grass develops 3 to 7 florets per spikelet, with lemmas bearing distinctive 15 to 30 millimeter awns that curve strongly outward as they mature.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, ridges, conifer forest

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 1800-3530 m

Bioregions: CaRH, SNH

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