Secale cereale

Cereal rye

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Cereal rye is a naturalized annual grass found in disturbed areas across northern California, from the Klamath Ranges to the Sierra Nevada foothills, the Tehachapi Mountains, and desert mountain regions at elevations below 1,800 meters. Flowering from May to August, this grass produces pale green to tan flower spikes that nod gracefully when mature, with distinctive long awns extending from each spikelet. Growing with robust stems 60 to 125 centimeters tall, the plant develops smooth, upright stems that are glabrous except near the flowering heads. Its leaf blades are relatively narrow, measuring 3 to 10 millimeters wide, with smooth, glabrous leaf sheaths. The distinctive seed heads are 8 to 17 centimeters long, with each spikelet featuring elongated awns measuring 2 to 7 centimeters in length.

Habitat: Disturbed slopes, roadsides

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 1800 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRI, n SNH, Teh, sw SnFrB, TR, PR, s MP, W&ampI, DMoj, expected elsewhere

California counties: Kern, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, Lassen, San Luis Obispo, Riverside, Ventura, Mendocino, Orange, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Shasta, El Dorado, Modoc, Butte, Contra Costa, Inyo, Marin, Monterey, Nevada, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Sierra, Tulare, Plumas, Siskiyou, Lake, Stanislaus, San Diego, Napa, Humboldt, Merced, Tehama, Tuolumne, Yolo, Alameda, Colusa, Placer, Sacramento

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