Stipa pulchra

Purple needle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Purple needle grass is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, northern and central Sierra Nevada foothills, Sacramento Valley, central western California, southern coastal California, Channel Islands, western Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges in oak woodland, chaparral, and grassland habitats at elevations below 1,700 meters. Flowering from March to June, this grass produces delicate pale purple to greenish flowers in open, graceful inflorescences 18 to 60 centimeters long. Growing with slender stems 35 to 100 centimeters tall and 1 to 3.1 millimeters in diameter, it forms elegant bunches with distinctive characteristics. Its leaf blades are 10 to 20 centimeters long, 0.8 to 4.9 millimeters wide, and can be flat or have slightly inrolled margins. The plant is especially notable for its long, persistent awn measuring 38 to 100 millimeters, which gives it a distinctive feathery appearance and its common name.

Habitat: Oak woodland, chaparral, grassland

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 1700 m

Bioregions: NW, n&ampc SNF, ScV, CW, SCo, ChI, WTR, PR

California counties: Humboldt, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Kern, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Ventura, Yolo, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Solano, Fresno, Placer, Monterey, Colusa, Contra Costa, Mendocino, Marin, Tehama, Napa, Lake, San Mateo, Alameda, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, Butte, Amador, Sutter, San Benito, Glenn, Yuba, Sacramento, El Dorado

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