Melica subulata

Alaskan oniongrass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Alaskan oniongrass is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, high Cascade Range, northern and central Sierra Nevada, Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, and Warner Mountains in moist sites, streambanks, and conifer forests at elevations below 2,300 meters. Flowering from April to July, this grass produces delicate spikelets 10 to 28 millimeters long with persistent glumes. Growing with stems 50 to 130 centimeters tall, it forms clustered sessile corms and develops short rhizomes. Its leaves are 2 to 10 millimeters wide with very short ligules measuring 0.4 to 5 millimeters. The grass produces 2 to 5 bisexual florets with lemmas that are generally hairy, particularly near the base, and have strongly tapered, acuminate tips.

Habitat: Moist sites, streambanks, conifer forest

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 2300 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaRH, n&ampc SNH, CCo, SnFrB, Wrn

California counties: Humboldt, Del Norte, Plumas, Nevada, Napa, Butte, Mariposa, Siskiyou, Mendocino, Trinity, Santa Clara, El Dorado, Amador, Alpine, Modoc, Glenn, Lassen, Placer, Shasta, Sonoma, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Tuolumne, Tehama, Yuba, Monterey, Lake

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