Poa cusickii subsp. cusickii

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Cusick's bluegrass is a native perennial grass found in eastern Klamath Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada, and Great Basin regions in moist meadows, dry slopes, sagebrush scrub, and montane forest at elevations of 1,500 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from May to July, this grass produces delicate, slender panicle branches with pale greenish-white spikelets. Growing with dense basal tufts and stems 15 to 45 centimeters tall, it develops an open leaf sheath covering one-half to three-quarters of its length. Its leaves form compact basal clusters with minimal exposed nodes, creating a tidy, clustered growth habit. The grass produces small spikelets 3.5 to 7.5 millimeters long that are smooth or slightly rough-textured.

Habitat: Moist meadows to dry slopes in sagebrush scrub or montane forest

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 1500-2500 m

Bioregions: e KR, n SNH, GB

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