Glyceria borealis

Boreal manna grass, Boreal Manna Grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Boreal manna grass is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and Warner Mountains in shallow water, muddy shores, and freshwater ponds within conifer forests at elevations of 800 to 2,200 meters. Flowering from June to August, this grass produces delicate, narrow inflorescences 18 to 50 centimeters long with small, cylindrical spikelets. Growing with robust stems 80 to 150 centimeters tall and approximately 2 millimeters in diameter, it forms dense clusters in wet environments. Its leaves have distinctive ligules 4 to 12 millimeters long and blades 2 to 7 millimeters wide, creating a fine, graceful texture. The spikelets contain 6 to 11 florets, with lemmas widest below the middle and slightly hairy along the veins.

Habitat: Shallow water, muddy shores, freshwater ponds, lakes in conifer forest

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 800-2200 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaR, SN, Wrn

California counties: Mono, Tehama, Lassen, Tuolumne, Modoc, Shasta, El Dorado, Plumas, Siskiyou, Mariposa, Placer, Sierra, Nevada, Tulare, Butte, Mendocino, Glenn, Lake, Madera, Humboldt

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