Stipa coronata

Crested needle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Crested needle grass is a California native perennial found in southern California coastal regions, the Channel Islands, western Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges in rocky or gravelly slopes of chaparral and coastal sage scrub at elevations up to 1,500 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces delicate, pale straw-colored flowers in dense clusters with distinctive elongated needle-like awns. Growing with robust stems 55 to 210 centimeters tall and 3 to 6 millimeters in diameter, it forms dense, upright clumps with characteristic grasslike architecture. Its leaf blades are 2.5 to 7 millimeters wide, generally flat, with proximal sheaths mostly smooth and unadorned. The plant's most distinctive feature is its long, bent awns measuring 25 to 45 millimeters, which persist after flowering and give the grass its dramatic, feathery appearance.

Habitat: Generally rocky or gravelly slopes, in chaparral, coastal-sage scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 1500(2300) m

Bioregions: SCoR, SCo, ChI, WTR, PR

California counties: San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Imperial, Riverside, Ventura, Orange, Inyo, Tulare, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Benito

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