Stipa cernua

Nodding needle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Nodding needle grass is a native perennial found in northern Coast Ranges, California Floristic Region, northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, Tehachapi, Great Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, and southwestern California in grasslands, chaparral, and juniper woodland at elevations of 5 to 1,700 meters. Flowering from February to July, this grass produces delicate, nodding pale green to tan flower heads with distinctive long, twisted awns. Growing 30 to 100 centimeters tall with slender stems between 1 to 3 millimeters in diameter, it forms loose, open clusters of fine, thread-like stems. Its narrow leaves are 3 to 26 centimeters long and less than 1.2 millimeters wide, typically flat or slightly rolled. The plant's most distinctive feature is its remarkably long, bent awn measuring 50 to 106 millimeters, which twists and waves gracefully in the wind.

Habitat: Grassland, chaparral, juniper woodland

Bloom period: Feb-Jul

Elevation: 5-1700 m

Bioregions: NCoR, CaRF, n&amps SNF, Teh, GV, SnFrB, SCoR, SW

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