Schismus barbatus

Common mediterranean grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Common mediterranean grass is a naturalized annual grass found in the Tehama, San Joaquin Valley, southern Coast Ranges, southwestern California, and desert regions in dry, open, generally disturbed areas at elevations below 1,200 meters. Flowering from March to April, this grass produces small, delicate flowers in slender, thread-like spikelets. Growing with thin stems 2 to 16 centimeters tall, it forms dense, low-growing clusters in disturbed landscapes. Its leaves are extremely narrow, less than 2 millimeters wide, creating a fine, hair-like appearance across the ground. The grass produces compact spikelets with glumes 4 to 5 millimeters long and lemmas 2 to 2.5 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Dry, open, generally disturbed areas

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: < 1200 m

Bioregions: Teh, SnJV, SCoRO, SW, D

California counties: Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Imperial, Inyo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Marin, Mendocino, San Benito, Kings, Fresno, Monterey

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