Stipa lemmonii

Lemmon's needle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Lemmon's needle grass is a California native perennial found in grassland and oak woodland habitats at moderate elevations. Flowering from May to July, this grass produces delicate pale yellow to light green spikelets with distinctive bent awns. Growing with slender stems 15 to 90 centimeters tall, it forms dense, compact clusters characteristic of needle grass species. Its narrow leaves are extremely fine, measuring just 0.5 to 2.5 millimeters wide, typically folded or with tightly inrolled margins. The plant's most distinctive feature is its persistent awn, which is 16 to 30 millimeters long and bent twice, creating an elegant curved silhouette.

California counties: Humboldt, Trinity, Mendocino, San Bernardino, Tuolumne, Glenn, Kern, Sierra, Lake, Placer, Plumas, Tehama, Mariposa, Amador, San Diego, El Dorado, Alpine, Shasta, Madera, Napa, Alameda, Calaveras, Siskiyou, Del Norte, Modoc, Mono, Riverside, Ventura, Butte, Los Angeles, Yuba, 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.