Stipa stillmanii

Stillman's needle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Stillman's needle grass is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada, and northern California Cascades in conifer forest at elevations of 350 to 1,920 meters. Flowering from June to July, this grass produces delicate, pale greenish-yellow spikelets with slender awns. Growing with stems 60 to 150 centimeters tall and emerging from short rhizomes, it forms dense, compact clusters. Its leaf blades are narrow, measuring 3 to 7 millimeters wide, with proximal sheaths mostly smooth and hairless. The distinctive needle-like seed awns are 18 to 25 millimeters long, bent once or twice, and persist after the flowering season.

Habitat: Conifer forest

Bloom period: Jun-Jul

Elevation: 350-1920 m

Bioregions: KR, CaR, n SN.

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