Stipa occidentalis

Western needlegrass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Western needlegrass is a California native perennial grass found in dry grasslands and open woodlands across California's interior mountain ranges at elevations from 500 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from May to July, this grass produces delicate pale tan to silver-colored flower clusters with narrow, gracefully arching spikes 5 to 30 centimeters long. Growing with slender stems 1.4 to 12 decimeters tall, it forms dense, elegant tufts with fine, inrolled leaf blades less than 3 millimeters wide. Its leaves have narrow, often hairy sheaths and fine blades that create soft, feathery clusters, with each flower featuring a distinctive twisted awn 15 to 55 millimeters long. The grass's sharp, hairy seed callus and persistent awns help it disperse by catching onto animal fur and clothing.

California counties: San Bernardino, Fresno, Los Angeles, Tulare, Riverside, Tuolumne, Inyo, Mono, Calaveras, Ventura, Nevada, El Dorado, Placer, Trinity, Mariposa, Del Norte, Alpine, Shasta, Humboldt, Tehama, Lassen, Siskiyou, Butte, Plumas, Madera

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