Phalaris minor

Little-seeded canary grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Little-seeded canary grass is a naturalized annual grass found in California's Central Valley, western foothills, and desert regions in disturbed areas and cultivated fields at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from April to July, this grass produces pale green to white spikelets in dense, oblong clusters 2 to 8 centimeters long. Growing with slender stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall, it has an upright and somewhat branching habit. Its leaves are flat and narrow, typically green and lance-shaped, with smooth margins characteristic of grass species. The plant produces small, hairy fertile lemmas approximately 2.5 to 4 millimeters long, which are distinctive in its reproductive structures.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, cultivated fields

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc CaR), D

California counties: San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Riverside, Yolo, Santa Clara, Ventura, Kern, Orange, Los Angeles, San Mateo, San Diego, Marin, Imperial, Monterey, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Yuba, Inyo, Sonoma, San Francisco, Glenn, Kings, Sacramento, San Benito, Sutter, Alameda, Butte, Colusa, Lake, Humboldt, Solano, Calaveras, Stanislaus, Tulare, El Dorado, Napa, Madera, Fresno, Merced, Shasta, Placer

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