Carex cyrtostachya

Arching sedge, Arching Sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Arching sedge is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native perennial found in northern Sierra Nevada in Butte, El Dorado, and Yuba counties, inhabiting wet meadows, marshes, and riparian margins at elevations of 600 to 1,350 meters. Flowering from May to July, this sedge produces pale green to reddish-brown flowers in linear cylindric spikes up to 6 centimeters long. Growing in dense tufts with stems 20 to 132 centimeters tall, it forms robust clumps with distinctively arching stems. Its leaves are narrow, 1.5 to 4.5 millimeters wide, with sheaths often marked by red or purple dots and green to whitish coloration. The fruit is enclosed in pale green to brown perigynia with occasional reddish or purple markings, each 1.9 to 2.7 millimeters long with a short beak.

Habitat: Wet meadows, marshes, seasonally wet outcrops, seeps, swales, riparian margins, floodplain terraces

Elevation: 600-1350 m

Bioregions: n SN (Butte, El Dorado, Yuba cos.).

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