Poa bigelovii

Bigelow's blue grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Native

Bigelow's blue grass is a California native annual grass found in southern California's desert regions and desert mountain areas in shady places within desert scrub and yellow-pine forest at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from March to May, this grass produces pale green to greenish-white flower spikelets in compact linear clusters. Growing in tufted clumps 15 to 40 centimeters tall with soft, flat leaf blades that are abruptly prow-tipped, it forms delicate grassy clusters. Its leaves have distinctive soft blades 1.5 to 5 millimeters wide with open sheaths and truncate ligules that are minutely rough to the touch. The flower spikelets feature lemmas with cobwebby calluses and hairy veins, creating a subtle textural complexity.

Habitat: Uncommon. Shady places in desert scrub, yellow-pine forest

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: SW, D

California counties: San Bernardino, San Diego, Inyo, Imperial, Riverside, Kern, Nevada

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