Poa fendleriana subsp. fendleriana

Mutton grass, Mutton Grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mutton grass is a native perennial found in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains in yellow-pine forest and subalpine slopes at elevations of 3,000 to 3,200 meters. Flowering from May to July, this grass produces delicate light green to pale green flowers in small, compact spikelets. Growing with slender stems 20 to 50 centimeters tall, it forms dense tufted clumps with fine, narrow leaves. Its leaf blades are narrow, measuring 1 to 3 millimeters wide, with a distinctive short ligule 0.2 to 1.2 millimeters long that has a scabrous or short-ciliate margin. The plant's lemmas are characterized by hairy keels and marginal veins, giving it a softly textured appearance in mountain grasslands.

Habitat: Uncommon. Slopes, yellow-pine forest to subalpine

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 3000-3200 m

Bioregions: SnBr, SnJt

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