Poa leptocoma

Bog blue grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Bog blue grass is a native perennial found in high-elevation subalpine and lower alpine environments of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in moist mossy meadows, bogs, and stream edges at elevations of 1,800 to 3,200 meters. Flowering from June to August, this delicate grass produces soft, pale green to bluish-green flower clusters in open, drooping inflorescences up to 15 centimeters long. Growing with slender, lax stems 10 to 70 centimeters tall, it forms loose tufted clumps characteristic of alpine grasslands. Its leaves are soft and generally flat, with open sheaths and tiny ligules measuring 1.5 to 4 millimeters long, creating a fine, wispy appearance. The plant's delicate spikelets feature lemmas with softly hairy margins, reflecting its adaptation to cool, moist high-mountain environments.

Habitat: Moist subalpine, lower alpine mossy meadows, bogs, streams

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1800-3200 m

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