Poa unilateralis subsp. unilateralis
San francisco blue grass, San Francisco Blue Grass
Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native
San francisco blue grass is a California native perennial found in northern Coast and central Coast bioregions on islands and coastal bluffs in saline, heavy soils at elevations below 410 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces small, subtle flowers in dense, cylindric clusters. Growing in tufted clumps 20 to 40 centimeters tall with soft, slender stems, it forms compact and densely clustered grass mats. Its leaf blades are narrow, soft, and generally 1 to 5 millimeters wide, emerging from open leaf sheaths with smooth ligules 1.5 to 5 millimeters long. The plant's delicate spikelets have glabrous or slightly hairy lemmas and produce small anthers 1.5 to 3 millimeters in length.
Habitat: Islands, coastal bluffs, in +- saline, heavy soils
Bloom period: Mar-Jun
Elevation: < 410 m
Bioregions: NCo, n&c CCo
California counties: San Mateo, Marin, Monterey, Mendocino
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.