Setaria viridis

Green bristle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Green bristle grass is a naturalized annual grass found in northwestern California, the Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, and southern desert regions in moist, disturbed areas, roadsides, and streambanks at elevations below 1,525 meters. Flowering from May to October, this plant produces pale green to green-white flowers in dense, bristly clusters 2 to 15 centimeters long. Growing with decumbent to erect stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall, the grass has scabrous leaf sheaths with ciliate upper margins. Its leaf blades are 8 to 20 centimeters long and 3 to 12 millimeters wide, with a smooth upper surface and a small ligule 1 to 2 millimeters long. The plant's distinctive bristly inflorescence features 1 to 3 short bristles surrounding each compact, approximately 2-millimeter-wide spikelet.

Habitat: Moist, disturbed areas, roadsides, streambanks

Bloom period: May-Oct

Elevation: < 1525 m

Bioregions: NW (exc NCoRH), CaRF, SN (exc s SNH, Teh), GV, SnFrB, SCoRO, SW (exc ChI), SNE, sw DMoj, DSon (Coachella, Imperial, Palo Verde valleys)

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

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