Poa secunda var. gracillima

Pacific bluegrass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Pacific bluegrass is a native perennial found in the high-elevation montane regions of California, primarily inhabiting damp sites and open springy places, especially on serpentine terrain at elevations of 1,800 to 3,800 meters. Flowering from April to August, this grass produces delicate, soft-textured spikelets 4 to 7 millimeters long with 2 to 4 florets. Growing 20 to 60 centimeters tall with smooth to slightly rough stems, it features soft leaf blades and ligules 1.5 to 4 millimeters long. Its leaves have smooth to lightly scabrous sheaths, with an open, spreading flowering structure that remains widely branched. The plant's lemmas are short-hairy over the lower body, with anthers measuring 1.8 to 2.7 millimeters long.

Habitat: Mainly damp montane sites, generally at high elevations, also open springy places in serpentine

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: 1800-3800 m

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