Polypogon monspeliensis

Annual beard grass, rabbitfoot grass, Rabbitfoot Grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Annual beard grass is a naturalized annual grass found in California in moist places and along streams at elevations below 2,100 meters. Flowering from April to August, this grass produces pale green to pale yellow plume-like inflorescences 1 to 17 centimeters long with delicate bristly flower clusters. Growing with erect stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall, it forms dense, soft-textured grass patches. Its leaves have long ligules 2 to 12 millimeters long that are irregularly toothed and minutely hairy, with blade-like leaves 10 to 20 centimeters long and 4 to 6 millimeters wide. The grass produces small spikelets with short awns 2 to 10 millimeters long, giving it a soft, feathery appearance.

Habitat: Common. Moist places, along streams

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: < 2100 m

Bioregions: CA

California counties: Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Humboldt, Alameda, Yolo, Marin, Siskiyou, Lake, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Fresno, Sonoma, Tulare, Monterey, Riverside, Orange, Imperial, San Francisco, San Mateo, Lassen, San Joaquin, Colusa, Inyo, Ventura, Mono, Contra Costa, Mendocino, Santa Barbara, Del Norte, Glenn, Madera, Napa, Placer, San Benito, Yuba, El Dorado, Nevada, Modoc, Trinity, Mariposa, Alpine, Calaveras, Merced, Sacramento, Shasta, Solano, Tuolumne, Butte, Kings, Plumas, Sutter, Tehama, Amador, Stanislaus

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