Poa lettermanii

Letterman's blue grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.3

Letterman's blue grass is a rare (CNPS 2B.3) California native perennial found in southern Sierra Nevada and White and Inyo Mountains in high alpine environments with sandy soil around boulders at elevations above 3,500 meters. Flowering from July to August, this delicate grass produces small, subtle flowers in narrow lanceolate clusters. Growing in dense tufts to just 2 to 9 centimeters tall, it forms compact, soft clumps with fine, soft stems. Its leaves are extremely narrow, between 0.5 to 1.5 millimeters wide, with open sheaths and truncate to acute ligules, typically flat or gently folded. The grass has delicate spikelets with glumes slightly longer than the lowest lemma and glabrous callus.

Habitat: High alpine, in sandy soil around boulders

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: > 3500 m

Bioregions: s SNH, W&ampI

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