purple onion grass

Melica spectabilis is a perennial grass which varies in maximum height from under 10 centimetres (3.9 in) to nearly a meter, growing from rhizomes and stalked, onionlike corms. The inflorescence is a narrow series of spikelets which are green with evenly spaced purple bands.

It is native to western North America from British Columbia to northern California to the Rocky Mountains, where it grows in moist meadows, forests, and other mountainous habitat.