Polypogon viridis

Water beard grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Water beard grass is a naturalized perennial grass found in northern coastal, Klamath Range, north coastal redwood, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, central western, southwestern, southern Sierra Nevada, and desert bioregions in disturbed areas, wet areas, ponds, and streambanks at elevations below 3,000 meters. Flowering from May to June, this grass produces pale green to whitish flower clusters in dense, narrowly lanceolate to elliptic arrangements. Growing with long-trailing stems 10 to 100 centimeters tall that root at the nodes, it spreads extensively across wet habitats. Its flat leaves measure 3 to 18 centimeters long with blades 2 to 10 millimeters wide, featuring ligules 1 to 6 millimeters in length. The plant's flower clusters have small glumes 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters long with finely scabrous surfaces.

Habitat: Common. Disturbed areas, wet areas, ponds, streambanks

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: < 3000 m

Bioregions: NCo, KR, NCoRO, SN (exc s SNH), GV, CW, SW, SNE, D

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