Elymus smithii

Western wheat grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Western wheat grass is a California native perennial found in northern Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, and eastern Desert Mountains including New York Mountains in dry, alkaline soils at elevations of 1,220 to 2,200 meters. Flowering from June to August, this grass produces pale green to blue-green flower heads in dense, two-ranked spikes 4 to 17 centimeters long. Growing with erect, glaucous stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall that emerge from spreading rhizomes, it forms distinctive clumps in arid landscapes. Its mostly basal leaves are glaucous, flat or rolled when dry, with narrow blades 2 to 26 centimeters long and less than 4.5 millimeters wide, featuring small auricles at the base. The spikelets contain 4 to 11 florets, with lemmas 8 to 14 millimeters long that may have short awns.

Habitat: Uncommon. Dry, alkaline soils, flats

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1220-2200 m

Bioregions: n SNH, GB, DMtns (New York Mtns)

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