Carex harfordii

Harford's sedge, monterey sedge, Monterey Sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Harford's sedge is a California native perennial sedge found in northern coastal, central western, and Channel Islands bioregions in wet or seasonally wet shores, meadows, and open forests at elevations below 900 meters. Flowering in spring and early summer, this sedge produces dark brown to nearly black inflorescences dense and compact, with spikelets clustered tightly together. Growing with often leaning stems that occasionally branch late in the season, it reaches moderate height with flexible green to gold-centered leaf bracts. Its leaf blades are relatively narrow, typically 2 to 5 millimeters wide, with short ligules less than 2 millimeters long. The fruit is small and delicate, with perigynia that are shiny green to brown and slightly ascending, featuring thin walls and subtle green margins.

Habitat: Wet or seasonally wet shores, meadows, open forest

Elevation: < 900 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoRO, CW, ChI

California counties: Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, San Francisco, San Mateo, San Luis Obispo, Humboldt, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Del Norte

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