''Leymus condensatus'', the giant wildrye, is a wild rye grass native to eastern Oregon,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and northern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Description

''Leymus condensatus'' also commonly referred to as ''Canyon Prince'' is a type of wild rye that is part of the ''Poaceae'' (Grass Family). It grows in bunches or clumps, a

bunch grass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...

, stays green all year, and has a distinctive silver blue foliage. It is drought tolerant, growing in

coastal sage scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is w ...

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

, the

California oak woodland California oak woodland is a plant community found throughout the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California in the United States and northwestern Baja California in Mexico. Oak woodland is widespread at lower elevations in coasta ...

s of southern oak woodland and foothill woodland, and

Joshua tree ''Yucca brevifolia'' is a plant species belonging to the genus ''Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca. This monocotyledonous tree is native to the ar ...

woodlands, rarely in

wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

. It often hybridizes with ''

Leymus triticoides ''Leymus triticoides'', with the common names creeping wild rye and beardless wild rye, is a species of wild rye. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California and Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas ...

'', producing the common hybrid grass ''Leymus x multiflorus''. The plant's leaves and seeds are often consumed by both mammals and birds.

References

External links