Stipa occidentalis var. occidentalis

Western needle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Western needle grass is a native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada, Peninsular Ranges, and eastern Sierra Nevada in conifer forest and alpine areas at elevations of 1,200 to 3,450 meters. Flowering from June to August, this grass produces pale purple to gray-tinged flowers with distinctive long awns. Growing with slender stems 14 to 50 centimeters tall and less than 1 millimeter in diameter, it forms delicate, open tufts. Its narrow leaf blades are 0.3 to 2 millimeters wide, with smooth sheaths that are generally glabrous. The plant's most distinctive feature is its intricate seed head with an awn 15 to 42 millimeters long, densely hairy along its lower segments.

Habitat: Conifer forest, alpine areas

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1200-3450 m

Bioregions: SN, PR, SNE

California counties: Tulare, San Bernardino, Fresno, El Dorado, Mono, Tuolumne, Nevada, Siskiyou, Modoc, Trinity, Shasta, Humboldt, Inyo, Stanislaus, Kern, Alpine, Los Angeles, Mariposa

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