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Little oniongrass

Melica fugax

Also called Little Melic, Little Melicgrass, Small Melicgrass

Little oniongrass
Photo: Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase)., Public domain

Little oniongrass (Melica fugax) is a small native perennial bunchgrass of western North America, growing up to about 60 cm tall and marked by onion-like corms at the stem bases. It is a wild grass of forest and plateau habitats, rarely grown in gardens, so care notes are general guidance.

Family
Poaceae (Grass family)
Grows as
Grass, Bulb, Perennial
Light
Part shade, Full sun
Water
Water sparingly once established; let the soil dry out between waterings, as it suits dry summers.
Soil
Well-drained, gritty or volcanic-type soil; tolerates poor soil.
Temperature
Cold hardy, suited to temperate climates; protect from prolonged waterlogging in winter.
How easy
Easy
Native range
W. U.S.A.
Climate
temperate

About

Melica fugax is a species of grass known by the common names little oniongrass and little melic. It is native to western North America where it usually grows in volcanic soils in forest and plateau habitat from British Columbia to the Sierra Nevada and North California Coast Ranges in California.

Melica fugax is a perennial bunchgrass growing up to 60 centimeters tall. The stems have clusters of onionlike corms at the bases similar to oniongrass (Melica bulbosa). The inflorescence is a narrow or spreading series of spikelets.

Other Melica plants

Siberian melicgrass · Melica amethystina · Melica animarum · Melica argentata · Melica argyrea · Bearded melicgrass · Melica arzivencoi · Melica bocquetii · Melica bonariensis · Melica brasiliana · Melica brevicoronata · Oniongrass

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Melica fugax by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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