Holcus lanatus

Common velvet grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Common velvet grass is a naturalized perennial found throughout California (except the Desert Southwest) in moist sites, roadbanks, cultivated fields, and meadows at elevations up to 2,400 meters. Flowering from June to August, this grass produces purple-tinged spikelets with soft, short hairs. Growing with ascending to erect stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall, it forms dense, soft-textured clumps. Its leaves are 5 to 18 centimeters long with truncate, jagged-edged ligules and blades 4 to 9 millimeters wide. The grass develops compact, pale inflorescences 7 to 15 centimeters long with delicate, hairy spikelets.

Habitat: Moist sites, roadbanks, cultivated fields, meadows

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: < 2400 m

Bioregions: CA (exc DSon)

California counties: Humboldt, Marin, Plumas, Butte, San Francisco, Tuolumne, Sonoma, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Inyo, San Bernardino, San Diego, Mariposa, Kern, San Mateo, Lake, Mendocino, Shasta, Siskiyou, Riverside, Del Norte, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Nevada, Placer, Tulare, Yuba, Lassen, Amador, Alameda, Napa, Sutter, Trinity, Mono, Ventura, Sacramento, Tehama, Contra Costa, Alpine, Modoc, Sierra, Yolo, Stanislaus, San Joaquin

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