Phalaris paradoxa

Hood canary grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Hood canary grass is a naturalized annual grass found in the North Coast Ranges, North Coast Interior, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, Southern Coast, and Desert Son regions in disturbed areas and cultivated fields at elevations below 300 meters. Flowering from May to August, this grass produces pale green to white spikelets in dense, compact clusters 3 to 9 centimeters long. Growing with stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall, it forms upright clumps with multiple branching stems. Its inflorescences are distinctive, with fertile spikelets surrounded by 5 to 6 sterile spikelets that fall together as a single unit. The spikelets have conspicuously winged and lobed glumes 5 to 8 millimeters long, giving the plant a unique textural appearance.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, cultivated fields

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: NCoRO, NCoRI, SN, GV, CCo, SnFrB, SCo, DSon

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

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