Sorghum bicolor

Sorghum

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Sorghum is a naturalized perennial found in coastal and inland California regions including the North Coast, North Coast Ranges, Central Valley, Central Coast, Southern Coast, Western Transverse Ranges, and Desert areas at elevations below 600 meters. Flowering throughout the year, this plant produces inconspicuous flowers in open to compact panicles up to six decimeters long. Growing with tall, erect stems one to two and a half meters high, it develops broad leaf blades five to one hundred centimeters long and three to five centimeters wide. Its leaves have a distinctive ligule one to four millimeters long, and the plant can form spreading or stiffly erect branches. The spikelets are typically four to nine millimeters long, with some developing awns up to thirty millimeters in length.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, roadsides

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 600 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoR, GV, CCo, SCo, WTR, D

California counties: Tulare, Yolo, Marin, Santa Clara, Kern, Fresno, San Bernardino, Orange, San Mateo, Monterey, Riverside, Ventura, Lake, Los Angeles, Sutter, San Luis Obispo, El Dorado, Alameda, Butte, Imperial, Colusa, Kings, San Diego, San Joaquin, Solano, Stanislaus, Sonoma, Napa, Santa Barbara, Shasta, Contra Costa, Tehama, Santa Cruz

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