Phalaris californica

California canary grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California canary grass is a native perennial found in northwestern and central western California in coastal open fields, disturbed areas, meadows, and woodlands at elevations below 800 meters. Flowering from April to June, this grass produces compact ovoid flower clusters with spikelets that have subtle purple-tipped glumes. Growing in dense clumps with stems 50 to 160 centimeters tall and distinctively swollen at the base, it forms robust grass clusters. Its stems feature spikelets with delicate hairy sterile lemmas and lanceolate fertile lemmas, creating a soft, textured appearance. The plant's compact inflorescences are 1.5 to 5 centimeters long and 1 to 3 centimeters wide, giving it a distinctive dense cluster form.

Habitat: Coastal open fields, disturbed areas, meadows, woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: < 800 m

Bioregions: NW, CW (exc SCoRI)

California counties: Humboldt, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Mateo, San Luis Obispo, Alameda, Marin, Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Del Norte, Contra Costa, Santa Barbara, Amador

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