Carex echinata

Bristle fruit sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Bristle fruit sedge is a California native perennial sedge found in wet meadows, seeps, and riparian areas at elevations suitable for its growth. Flowering during the summer months, this sedge produces narrow spikelets 3 to 15.5 millimeters long with a slightly jagged outline. Growing with stems that have slightly blunt edges, it forms clusters with distinctive pistillate flower bracts that are brown with white margins. Its fruits are distinctive, spreading to reflexed, generally 2.9 to 4.75 millimeters long, ranging from green to brown with a tapered beak. The plant's fruit is particularly notable for having a lower wall filled with pithy tissue and a beak that is sparse-serrate.

California counties: Fresno, San Bernardino, El Dorado, Trinity, Tulare, Nevada, Tuolumne, Humboldt, Plumas, Siskiyou, Mariposa, Del Norte, Sierra, Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Yuba

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