Eriochloa contracta

Prairie cup grass, Prairie Cup Grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Prairie cup grass is a naturalized perennial grass found in the Central Valley, southwestern California, and desert regions of southern California in seasonal stream habitats at elevations below 100 meters. Flowering from August to October, this grass produces purple-tinged spikelets 3.5 to 4.5 millimeters long in delicate inflorescences. Growing with stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall, it has 2 to 5 distinctive nodes along its stem. Its leaf blades are generally 8 to 12 centimeters long and 2 to 8 millimeters wide, with short hairs on the upper surface. The spikelets develop with short stalks less than 1 millimeter long, creating a distinctive compact grass formation.

Habitat: Seasonal streams

Bloom period: Aug-Oct

Elevation: < 100 m

Bioregions: GV, SW, DSon

California counties: Riverside, Glenn, Merced, Imperial, Yolo, Sutter, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Solano, Butte, Tehama, Kern, San Joaquin, Madera

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