title: Melica subulata
text: # Melica subulata
  
  Melica subulata is a species of grass known by the common name Alaska oniongrass.
  
  ## Distribution
  
  It is native to western North America from Alaska to California to Colorado, where it grows in moist habitat, often in forests.
  
  Melica subulata is a main understory member of the Douglas-fir/Alaska oniongrass plant community, a rare plant association that occurs on the southern edge of Vancouver Island on the Strait of Georgia. This plant community once had a wider range, occurring also along the Puget Sound and in the Willamette Valley.
  
  ## Description
  
  Melica subulata is a rhizomatous perennial grass with clustered onionlike corms at the base of each stem. It grows to a maximum height near 1.3 meters. The inflorescence is a narrow or spreading panicle of cylindrical, pointed spikelets which may be nearly 3 centimeters long.
  
  