[elkhornsloughctp.org] History, Rarity: This inconspicuous annual was only discovered in 2006 by botanist Ellen Holmes during a CNPS field trip to Butterfly Valley at Fort Ord National Monument in Monterey County. During lunch she glanced down and saw a grass she didn’t recognize. She asked botanist Randall Morgan if he recognized it, but he did not. Morgan grew several plants and pressings made from these were sent to Paul Peterson and Robert Soreng at the Smithsonian in 2010. In late fall of that year, the experts determined that this was a new species, which was described in 2011 (Holmes, personal communication; Styer, personal communication; Peterson et al. 2011). The extremely rare species was given a California Rare Plant Rank of 1B.1 in 2012. (link added by Mary Ann Machi)