Muhlenbergia rigens

Deer grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Deer grass is a California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, southern Coast Ranges, southern California, Transverse Ranges, San Jacinto Mountains, eastern Sierra Nevada, and Mojave Desert in sandy to gravelly places, canyons, and stream bottoms at elevations up to 2,150 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces yellow to purple flowers in dense, narrow cylindrical inflorescences 15 to 60 centimeters long. Growing in densely clumped tufts 50 to 150 centimeters tall with flat leaf blades 10 to 50 centimeters long, it forms robust, graceful clusters. Its leaf blades are narrow, 1.5 to 6 millimeters wide, with truncate ligules that are slightly ciliate. The delicate, appressed branches of its flowering structure create a distinctive feathery appearance characteristic of this elegant grass.

Habitat: Sandy to gravelly places, canyons, stream bottoms

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: < 2150 m

Bioregions: CaRH, SN, GV, SCoRO, SCo, TR, SnJt, SNE, DMoj

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Fresno, Monterey, Ventura, Inyo, Tulare, Nevada, Imperial, Orange, Santa Barbara, Shasta, Placer, Kern, Sacramento, Stanislaus, Alameda, Amador, Madera, Mariposa, San Benito, Tuolumne, Yuba, Butte, Sutter, Colusa, Glenn, Tehama, San Joaquin, San Francisco, Yolo, Calaveras

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