Stipa pinetorum

Pinewoods needle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Pinewoods needle grass is a California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada, Southern Sierra Nevada, northeastern Sierra Nevada, and Desert Mountains in rocky soil within pinyon/juniper woodland and conifer forest at elevations of 2,000 to 3,800 meters. Flowering from June to August, this grass produces delicate pale flowers in dense inflorescences 4.5 to 20 centimeters long. Growing with slender stems 14 to 50 centimeters tall, it forms elegant tufted clumps with narrow, inrolled leaf blades less than one millimeter wide. Its distinctive leaves have glabrous proximal sheaths and fine, thread-like texture. The plant's most notable feature is its persistent, scabrous awn that is 13 to 25 millimeters long and dramatically bent twice.

Habitat: Rocky soil, pinyon/juniper woodland, conifer forest

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 2000-3800 m

Bioregions: SN, SnBr, SNE, DMtns

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Mono, Modoc, Alpine, Fresno, Mariposa, Tuolumne

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