Open, steppe-like vegetation of perennial bunch grasses, with flowering culms 0.3-1m high. Most growth and flowering occur during late spring and early summer. The plants are dormant in winter (from cold) and mostly dormant in late summer and fall (from drought).
SITE FACTORS:
On fine-textured soils, damp or frozen at the surface in winter, moist in spring, dry in summer and fall. Often intermixed with Big Sagebrush Scrub (35210), which becomes dominant on better-drained, drier soils. Overgrazing may cause expansion of sagebrush into the grassland and/or replacement of native grassland by introduced species. This habitat is now uncommon in its original form.
DISTRIBUTION:
Scattered through the valleys of Modoc and Lassen Counties, occasional in eastern Plumas Co., Mono Co. (Bridgeport Valley, Long Valley), and Inyo County (Owens Valley). More abundant in the northern Great Basin and interior Pacific Northwest.
UPDATE: 10/86
Source: Holland, 1986
Digital Text: NatureBase