Hyparrhenia hirta

Thatching grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Thatching grass is a naturalized perennial found in southern California coastal areas including Los Angeles and San Diego counties in disturbed sites and urban canyon habitats at elevations below 300 meters. Flowering from March to July, this grass produces pale tan to green-yellow spikelets with densely hairy glumes in compact clusters. Growing in clustered clumps 30 to 100 centimeters tall with short rhizomes, the plant forms dense grass-like stands. Its narrow leaves are 5 to 30 centimeters long, typically folded or tightly rolled and less than 3 millimeters wide. The grass produces distinctive awns 1 to 3.5 centimeters long, with lemmas becoming hairy in the upper half of the spikelet.

Habitat: Disturbed sites, canyons near urban areas

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: SCo (Los Angeles, San Diego cos.)

California counties: San Diego, Los Angeles

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