Poa bolanderi

Bolander's blue grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Native

Bolander's blue grass is a native annual grass found in northwestern California, the high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and San Jacinto Mountains, primarily in open pine forest environments at elevations of 1,280 to 3,275 meters. Flowering from June to August, this grass produces delicate spikelets with small, subtle flowers. Growing in tufted clumps 20 to 60 centimeters tall, it forms dense clusters with soft, flat leaf blades. Its leaves have short, rounded ligules and narrow blades approximately 1.5 to 5 millimeters wide, with distinctive abruptly prow-tipped ends. The grass develops an open branching inflorescence that spreads when fruiting, with spikelets clustered along the upper half of the stems.

Habitat: mountains especially in open pine forest

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: generally 1280-3275 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRH, SNH, SnJt (probably MP)

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