Sporobolus flexuosus

Mesa dropseed

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mesa dropseed is a native perennial grass found in the eastern Sierra Nevada and desert bioregions in rocky to sandy washes, slopes, scrub, and woodland at elevations of 100 to 2,100 meters. Flowering from May to October, this grass produces green to purple spikelets in open, spreading inflorescences with nodding central axes. Growing in tufted clumps with erect or decumbent stems 30 to 100 centimeters tall, it forms distinctive grass clusters with conspicuous collar hairs. Its grass blades are narrow, 5 to 25 centimeters long and 1 to 6 millimeters wide, with margins that are glabrous or finely ciliate. The small fruits are ellipsoid, light to red-brown, and less than one millimeter long.

Habitat: Rocky to sandy washes, slopes, scrub, woodland

Bloom period: May-Oct

Elevation: 100-2100 m

Bioregions: SNE, D

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Riverside, San Diego, Kern, San Benito, Sutter

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