Melica californica

California melic, California Melic

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California melic is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, Central Western California, Western Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges in open or rocky hillsides, oak woodland, and conifer forest at elevations below 2,200 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces delicate pale green to brown spikelets in compact clusters with branches held close to the main stem. Growing with slender stems 40 to 140 centimeters tall and slightly swollen lower internodes, it develops without a prominent underground corm. Its leaf blades are narrow, measuring 1.5 to 5 millimeters wide, with a ligule 1.5 to 4 millimeters long. Each spikelet contains 2 to 5 bisexual florets with lemmas 5 to 9 millimeters long, typically glabrous or slightly rough-textured.

Habitat: Open or rocky hillsides, oak woodland, conifer forest

Bloom period: Apr-May

Elevation: < 2200 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, GV, CW, WTR, PR

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

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