Elymus trachycaulus subsp. trachycaulus

Slender wheat grass, Slender Wheat Grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Slender wheat grass is a native perennial grass found in California (excluding the Great Valley) in dry to moist open areas, forests, and woodlands at elevations below 3,400 meters. Flowering from June to August, this grass produces pale green to greenish-white spikelets in compact clusters 4 to 25 centimeters long. Growing in dense tufts or with weak rhizomes, it reaches 30 to 150 centimeters tall with slender, upright stems. Its leaves are narrow, 2 to 5 millimeters wide, flat to slightly rolled, with very small auricles less than 1 millimeter long. The plant's delicate spikelets feature narrow lance-shaped glumes and can produce awns up to 40 millimeters long, giving the grass a distinctive, slightly bristly appearance.

Habitat: dry to moist, open areas, forest, woodland

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: < 3400 m

Bioregions: CA (exc GV)

California counties: Alpine, Fresno, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Lake, Lassen, Modoc, Mono, Napa, Plumas, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Tulare, Tuolumne, San Luis Obispo, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Nevada, San Mateo, Siskiyou, Trinity, Alameda, Amador, Butte, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Sonoma, Tehama, Placer, Sierra, Shasta, Merced, Colusa, Ventura, Solano, Monterey, San Benito

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