Neostapfia

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Neostapfia
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
(unranked): Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Chloridoideae
Genus: Neostapfia
Species: N. colusana
Binomial name
Neostapfia colusana
Burtt Davy
Synonyms

Stapfia colusana
Anthochloa colusana
Davyella colusana

Neostapfia is a monotypic genus containing the single species of grass Neostapfia colusana, which is known by the common name Colusa grass.

Distribution

It is endemic to the Central Valley of California, where it grows in vernal pools. This rare grass is a federally listed threatened species in the United States.

Description

Colusa grass is a clumping bunchgrass with distinctive cylindrical inflorescences covered in flat spikelets. The inflorescences are said to resemble tiny ears of corn. They fruit in grains covered in a gluey secretion, and when a plant is mature each clump becomes brown and sticky with the exudate. The genus was named for the botanist Otto Stapf.

The plant is limited to vernal pool habitat, a type of ecosystem which is increasingly rare as land is consumed by development and agriculture, and damaged by flood control regimes and other alteration in hydrology.[1]

References

  1. ↑ California Native Plant Society Rare Plant Profile

External links

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