Stipa thurberiana

Thurber's needle grass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Thurber's needle grass is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California mountains, Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountains, western Transverse Ranges, and Great Basin in canyons, foothills, sagebrush scrub, and juniper woodland at elevations of 800 to 3,100 meters. Flowering from May to July, this grass produces delicate pale greenish-white flower clusters in dense, narrow inflorescences 7 to 15 centimeters long. Growing with slender stems 30 to 75 centimeters tall, it forms graceful, somewhat upright clumps with fine, wiry stems. Its narrow leaves are extremely thin, measuring just 0.5 to 2 millimeters wide, with inrolled margins and ligules 3 to 8 millimeters long. The distinctive seed awns are 32 to 56 millimeters long, bent twice, and covered with dense hairs on the lower portion.

Habitat: Canyons, foothills, sagebrush scrub, juniper woodland

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 800-3100 m

Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SNH, Teh, WTR, GB

California counties: Lassen, Mono, Inyo, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Alpine, Amador, Modoc, Siskiyou, Shasta, Sierra, Mariposa

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