Polypogon maritimus

Mediterranean beard grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Mediterranean beard grass is a naturalized annual grass found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, southern California coastal areas, western Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and eastern Mojave Desert in moist places at elevations below 600 meters. Flowering in June, this grass produces dense, plume-like inflorescences 1 to 8.5 centimeters long with pale, bristly spikelets. Growing with slender stems 5 to 50 centimeters tall, it forms delicate, compact clusters. Its leaves have narrow blades 1 to 14 centimeters long and 2 to 4 millimeters wide, with ligules less than 6 millimeters long and irregularly toothed edges. The spikelets feature glumes with fine bristles and delicate fringed edges, with tiny awns 4.5 to 12 millimeters long.

Habitat: Common. Moist places

Bloom period: Jun

Elevation: < 600 m

Bioregions: NW (exc KR), CaR, SN, GV, SnFrB, SCo, WTR, PR, DMoj

California counties: Yolo, Sacramento, Humboldt, Solano, San Diego, Riverside, Lake, Santa Barbara, Colusa, Glenn, Los Angeles, Kern, Mendocino, Sonoma, Tulare, Tehama, Butte, Yuba, Amador, Stanislaus, Shasta, Marin, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sutter, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Siskiyou, Trinity, Del Norte, San Bernardino, Ventura, El Dorado, Merced, Napa, Madera, Mariposa

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