Eragrostis cilianensis

Stink grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Stink grass is a naturalized annual grass found in California in disturbed soils at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from June to October, this grass produces pale gray-green spikelets in compact clusters up to 20 centimeters wide. Growing with spreading or occasionally decumbent stems up to 60 centimeters tall, it has distinctive glandular characteristics, with small glands present below leaf nodes. Its leaves are flat or slightly rolled, 10 to 20 centimeters long with margins featuring distinctive wart-like glands, and its leaf sheaths are long-hairy near the collar. The tiny spikelets measure 2.5 to 3 millimeters wide with multiple florets, each lemma approximately 2 to 2.5 millimeters long with prominent lateral veins.

Habitat: Disturbed soils

Bloom period: Jun-Oct

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: CA

California counties: San Bernardino, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Riverside, Ventura, Imperial, Humboldt, Fresno, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Butte, Santa Clara, Orange, Yolo, Inyo, Lake, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Tehama, Tulare, Solano, El Dorado, Lassen, Mendocino, Monterey, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Shasta, Trinity, Marin, Napa, Contra Costa, Colusa, Tuolumne, Mono, Santa Cruz, Glenn, Merced, Stanislaus, Madera, Mariposa

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