Stipa nelsonii var. dorei

Mountain needle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mountain needle grass is a California native perennial found in the northern Sierra Nevada, northern California Ranges, and northern Mountain Provinces in openings, sagebrush scrub, and meadows at elevations of 450 to 3,500 meters. Flowering from June to September, this grass produces pale straw-colored flowers in dense inflorescences 9 to 36 centimeters long. Growing with tall stems 40 to 175 centimeters high, it has distinctive needle-like leaves 1.2 to 5 millimeters wide. Its leaves vary from glabrous to hairy, with proximal leaf sheaths ranging from smooth to densely covered in fine hairs. The grass produces an elegant, bent awn 19 to 31 millimeters long that twists characteristically above each delicate flower.

Habitat: Openings, sagebrush scrub, meadows

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: 450-3500 m

Bioregions: CaR, SN, MP

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