Foothill Needle Grass

Stipa lepida
NATIVE

Description (Jepson, PlantID.net)

• Monocotyledon
  • Monocots are a major lineage of flowering plants; see family for general characteristics
• Grass Family (Poaceae)
• Perennial bunchgrass
• Open, nodding inflorescence (flower arrangement) develops many needle-like seedheads
• Wind pollinated
• Seeds have sharply-pointed tips and twice-bent awns (stiff, hair-like appendages), which twist into the ground as they dry, self-planting
• Height usually 1-2 ft.

Distribution

• Native to California
  • Grows in chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and grasslands
  • See Calflora for statewide observations of this plant
• Outside California, grows in Baja California, Mexico
• Grows at elevations to 4,600 ft.

Uses (San Mateo County Parks prohibits removal of any natural material)

• One of several grass seeds used by Native people as a food source
• Native people used grasses in many ways: lining cooking pits, stringing drying foods, and as flooring or bedding

Name Derivation

• Stipa (STY-pa) – from the Greek for “flax” or “fiber,” for the tufted flower clusters
• lepida (LEH-pid-a) – from the Latin for “elegant” or “graceful”
• Needle grass – awns (stiff, hair-like appendages) are long and fine, like a needle trailing a thread

Notes

• About 80% of California’s native grasses, including foothill needle grass, are perennials (Beidleman and Kozloff 2003)
• Native perennial bunchgrasses leave room for wildflowers to grow between clumps
  • In contrast, non-native annual grasses often grow in thick carpets and can form an impenetrable thatch that chokes out other plants
• Native perennial bunchgrasses have deep roots
  • Draw water and nutrients to the surface where they can be utilized by other vegetation
    • In contrast, shallowly-rooted non-native annual grasses take resources from the soil surface (Heiple 2018)
  • Act as highly effective carbon sinks
    • The rate of carbon sequestration increases with soil depth
    • Even when these grasses die, the carbon remains in the soil, providing resilience to climate change
  • Provide erosion control
• Like other bunchgrasses, foothill needle grass is adapted to endure light grazing and defoliation by fire
  • High-intensity, continuous grazing, especially in drought conditions, will kill it
• Grasses, oaks, and silk tassels are examples of plants at Edgewood that are wind pollinated
  • About 12% of flowering plants and most conifers are wind-pollinated (US Forest Service)
  • These plants do not waste energy on flower features that attract animal pollinators; instead, their flowers generally have these characteristics
    • Small, petalless, and unscented, with muted colors
    • No nectar
    • Stamen (male flower part) and stigma (pollen-receiving part of the pistil/female structure) are exposed to air currents
    • Male flowers produce a great deal of pollen, which is very small, dry, and easily airborne, as all allergy sufferers know!
• Some references classify needlegrasses in the genus Nassela
• Needle grasses “are the redwoods of the grass world” with life spans exceeding 100 years (Don Reese, a USDA soil conservationist, quoted in Wilson 2012)

ID Tips

• May be confused with purple needle grass (S. pulchra)
  • Foothill needle grass
    • Is shorter (1-2 ft.), with a finer, more delicate appearance
    • Has awns (stiff, hair-like appendages) shorter than your little finger
    • Tends to grow at the margins of woodlands and chaparral
  • Purple needle grass
    • Is taller (2-3 ft.), with a coarser, more robust appearance
    • Has awns longer than your little finger
    • Tends to grow in open grassland

At Edgewood

• Widespread in chaparral and scrub; look for it at the sloping margins of grasslands and woodlands, often in part shade
  • See iNaturalist for observations of this plant
• Flowers April – June

See General References

Specific References

Beidleman, L.H. and Kozloff, E.N. 2003. Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region: Mendocino to Monterey. University of California, Berkeley.

Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources. 2019. Carbon Sequestration in Grasslands.

US Forest Service. Celebrating Flowers: Wind and Water Pollination. United States Department of Agriculture.

Wilson, B. 2012. Stipa lepida, Foothill Stipa. Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery.