Stipa lemmonii var. lemmonii

Lemmon's needle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Lemmon's needle grass is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, San Francisco Bay Area, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and Great Basin in pine forests, mixed-evergreen woodlands, sagebrush scrub, chaparral, and grasslands at elevations of 50 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from May to July, this grass produces delicate pale yellowish-green to light brown flowers in slender, open panicles. Growing with slender stems 30 to 80 centimeters tall, it has a tufted growth habit with stems that are glabrous to softly hairy near the base. Its leaves are narrow and thread-like, with basal leaf sheaths that range from completely smooth to lightly hairy. The distinctive needle-like seeds have long, twisted awns that help the grass disperse across its varied habitats.

Habitat: Pine, mixed-evergreen forest, sagebrush scrub, chaparral, grassland, serpentine or not

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 50-2300 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaR, SN, SnFrB, TR, PR, GB

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