Paspalum distichum

Knot grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Knot grass is a native perennial found in California's Central Valley, Great Basin, and northern Mojave Desert regions in wet habitats including lake edges, rice fields, and roadside ditches at elevations up to 1,770 meters. Flowering from June to October, this plant produces straw-colored to partially purple spikelets in 2 to 3 ascending, often arched racemes. Growing with creeping or clumped stems 5 to 63 centimeters tall, it spreads across wet ground with distinctive flat or folded leaf blades 1.8 to 11.5 millimeters wide. Its leaves are glabrous to softly pubescent, with short ligules 1 to 2 millimeters long and inrolled tips. The fruit is a small yellow grain 1.9 to 2.1 millimeters long, typical of grass species.

Habitat: Edges of lakes, ponds, rice fields, wet roadside ditches

Bloom period: Jun-Oct

Elevation: < 1770 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc mtns), GB, n DMoj

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

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