Index / Search / Melica californica
§1 Plant
Melica californica Scribn.
vernacular California melicgrass — species · Poaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Graminoid
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Monocot
- Family
- Poaceae Barnhart
- Genus
- Melica
§2a
Native status, by region
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b
County-level range
· 47 counties across 2 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Medium
- Shade
- Medium
- Moisture use
- Low
- Fire
- High
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- Low
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 7 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 240 min.
- Precipitation
- 14–24 in/yr
- pH range
- 6–7.5
- Root depth
- 10 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Bunch
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Lifespan
- Short
- Mature height
- 4 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Moderate
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Summer
- Seed abundance
- Low
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 300,000
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Contracting Only
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- Medium
- Graze palatability
- High
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- Low
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 47 counties across 2 states/territories.
California view state ↗ 44 N ▾
- Alameda 06001
- Amador 06005
- Butte 06007
- Calaveras 06009
- Contra Costa 06013
- El Dorado 06017
- Fresno 06019
- Glenn 06021
- Humboldt 06023
- Kern 06029
- Lake 06033
- Madera 06039
- Marin 06041
- Mariposa 06043
- Mendocino 06045
- Merced 06047
- Modoc 06049
- Mono 06051
- Monterey 06053
- Napa 06055
- Nevada 06057
- Placer 06061
- Plumas 06063
- Sacramento 06067
- San Benito 06069
- San Bernardino 06071
- San Francisco 06075
- San Luis Obispo 06079
- San Mateo 06081
- Santa Barbara 06083
- Santa Clara 06085
- Santa Cruz 06087
- Shasta 06089
- Siskiyou 06093
- Solano 06095
- Sonoma 06097
- Stanislaus 06099
- Sutter 06101
- Tehama 06103
- Trinity 06105
- Tulare 06107
- Tuolumne 06109
- Yolo 06113
- Yuba 06115
Oregon view state ↗ 3 N ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/MECA2 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/2703122 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T16:37:38Z