Carex cusickii

Cusick's sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Cusick's sedge is a California native perennial sedge found in northern coastal California, Klamath Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada, central Coast Ranges, San Francisco Bay Area, and North Coast Ranges in shores, peatlands, and fens at elevations up to 2,100 meters. Growing in dense tufted clusters, this sedge forms distinctive clumps with stems 2.5 to 6 millimeters wide, featuring leaf sheaths with distinctive red dots and U-shaped mouths. Its leaves have wide ligules more than twice as long as their width, with reddish cross-wrinkled sheaths that create a unique textural appearance. The sedge produces inflorescences 4 to 8 centimeters long with spikelets that have brown bracts with white margins. Its fruit is small and shiny, with a black, slightly spreading perigynia bearing a white-tipped beak 1 to 1.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Shores, peatland, fens

Elevation: < 2100 m

Bioregions: NCo, KR, CaR, n&ampc SNH, CCo, SnFrB, MP

California counties: Humboldt, Sonoma, Tuolumne, Mendocino, Plumas, San Luis Obispo, Trinity, Marin, Nevada, Glenn, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Sierra, Butte, Del Norte, Monterey, Placer, Lassen, Shasta, Mono, San Francisco, El Dorado, Mariposa

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.