Trisetum spicatum
Spike false oat, Spike False Oat
Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Spike false oat is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, northern and southern Coast Ranges, San Bernardino Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains, Warner Mountains, northern eastern Sierra Nevada, and White and Inyo Mountains in dry to moist meadows, streambanks, rock outcrops, and open conifer forests at elevations of 1,370 to 3,900 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces purple-tinged flowers in dense, spike-like inflorescences 2.5 to 7 centimeters long. Growing in densely clumped tufts 0.5 to 4 decimeters tall with erect stems, it forms compact grass-like clusters. Its mostly basal leaves are glabrous or densely soft-hairy, with narrow blades 1 to 4 millimeters wide and short ligules 1 to 3 millimeters long. The distinctive spikelets feature lanceolate glumes and lemmas with awns 4 to 8 millimeters long, often bent near the base.
Habitat: dry to moist sites, meadows, streambanks, rock outcrops, open areas in conifer forest, sagebrush scrub
Bloom period: Jul-Aug
Elevation: 1370-3900 m
Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SNH, SnGb, SnBr, SnJt, Wrn, n SNE, W&I
California counties: Tulare, Los Angeles, Tuolumne, Fresno, Alpine, Nevada, Mono, Siskiyou, Inyo, Shasta, Riverside, Mariposa, San Diego, Modoc, San Bernardino, Trinity, El Dorado, Placer, Butte, Amador, Lassen, Plumas, Sierra, Madera, Tehama, Yuba, Calaveras
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.