Melica harfordii

Harford melic

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Harford melic is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, the high Cascade Range, northern and central Sierra Nevada, San Joaquin Valley, northern San Francisco Bay, and northern South Coast Ranges in dry slopes and conifer forest at elevations up to 2,600 meters. Flowering from May to July, this grass produces delicate spikelets 7 to 20 millimeters long with soft, pale flowers. Growing with stems 35 to 120 centimeters tall and without a corm, it forms an upright, compact grass with slender branches. Its leaves have narrow blades 2 to 6 millimeters wide with short ligules 1 to 2 millimeters long, and distinctive lemmas with soft ciliate margins and short awns 1 to 4 millimeters long. The plant's spikelets feature 2 to 6 florets with slightly unequal glumes that persist through the growing season.

Habitat: dry slopes, conifer forest

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: < 2600 m

Bioregions: NW (exc NCo), CaRH, n&ampc SNH, SnJV, n SnFrB, n SCoR

California counties: Humboldt, Trinity, Marin, Sonoma, Shasta, Butte, Siskiyou, Del Norte, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Nevada, Mariposa, Sacramento, El Dorado, Fresno, Inyo, Tuolumne, Sierra, Placer, Lake, Plumas, Yuba, Glenn, Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, Tehama, Colusa, Napa, Mono, Amador

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