Common Names
Bear Grass

Habitat
Deserts and dry transitional forest areas in the southwestern United States. For bear grass outside of the South West, please see the Lilly family species.

Flowers
A column of many small white plowers on a long tall stalk.

Description
Many thin and very fibrous leaves will form a dense clump. There may be many old dead leaves, yellow dying leaves, and new or young green leaves in the same clump. Most of the year, the clump looks like a large clump of grass, unless a flower stalk or a dead stalk is present.

Comments
This species shares a common name with a type of Lilly found in the Pacific NW and northern Rockies. They once may have been grouped in the same family, but the genus and species are not the same, and the appearance of the plant is completely different. Please do not confuse the two species.