Pleuropogon hooverianus

North coast semaphore grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1

North coast semaphore grass is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native perennial found in southern North Coast, northern Coast Ranges, and northern San Francisco Bay bioregions in wet grassy areas at elevations below 1,300 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces green-tinged flowers in delicate, erect spikelets 2 to 4.5 centimeters long. Growing with upright stems 80 to 160 centimeters tall emerging from underground rhizomes, it forms dense clumps in moist grassland environments. Its leaves are distinctively narrow, with blades 3 to 10 millimeters wide and ligules 3 to 7 millimeters long. The grass produces intricate spikelets with lemmas 7 to 12 millimeters long, occasionally bearing short awns up to 4 millimeters.

Habitat: Wet grassy areas

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 1300 m

Bioregions: s NCo, NCoRO, NCoRI, n SnFrB.

California counties: Mendocino, Marin, Sonoma

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