Melica fugax

Little melic, Little Melic

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Little melic is a native perennial grass found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, and eastern Sierra Nevada in dry volcanic flats, hillsides, and conifer forests at elevations of 1,200 to 2,200 meters. Flowering from May to July, this delicate grass produces small spikelets with pale green to tan flowers arranged in loose, branching clusters. Growing with slender stems 10 to 60 centimeters tall, it develops clustered underground corms that support its growth. Its narrow leaves are typically 1.2 to 5 millimeters wide, with very short ligules measuring just 0.5 to 3 millimeters long. The grass produces spikelets 4 to 17 millimeters long, with each spikelet containing two to five florets that appear slightly wrinkled and turn brown when dry.

Habitat: dry volcanic flats, hillsides, conifer forest

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 1200-2200 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, NCoRI, CaR, n&ampc SNH, GB

California counties: Plumas, Siskiyou, Butte, Alpine, Fresno, El Dorado, Nevada, Glenn, Mendocino, Lassen, Mono, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Placer, Sierra, Tehama, Shasta, Calaveras, Modoc, Humboldt, Lake, Stanislaus

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