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Colusa grass
Conservation status
	; Threatened (ESA)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Subfamily:	Chloridoideae
Tribe:	Cynodonteae
Subtribe:	Orcuttiinae
Genus:	Neostapfia; Burtt Davy
Species:	N. colusana
Binomial name
	Neostapfia colusana; Burtt Davy
Synonyms
	Stapfia Burtt Davy 1898, illegitimate name not Chodat 1897 (a green alga in family Tetrasporaceae); Davyella Hack.; Stapfia colusana Burtt Davy; Anthochloa colusana (Burtt Davy) Scribn.; Davyella colusana (Burtt Davy) Hack.;

Neostapfia is a genus of endemic Californian bunchgrasses, in the subfamily Chloridoideae of the grass family, Poaceae.^[3]^[1]^[4]^[5]^[6] The only known species is Neostapfia colusana, with the common name Colusa grass.^[1]

Distribution

Neostapfia colusana is endemic to the Central Valley of California, in the northern section's Sacramento Valley and in the southern section's San Joaquin Valley.^[1] The bunchgrass grows in vernal pools, which are seasonal shallow freshwater ponds.

It is native to the Central Valley counties of Glenn, Colusa, Yolo, Solano, Stanislaus, and Merced.^[7]^[8]

This rare grass is a federally listed threatened species in the United States.^[9]^[3]

Description

Neostapfia colusana 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 botanist Otto Stapf.

Conservation

The plant is limited to vernal pool habitats, a type of ecosystem that is increasingly rare as Central Valley land is consumed by development and agriculture, and damaged by flood-control regimens and other alterations of hydrology.^[10]