Carex heteroneura
Smooth-fruited sedge, Smooth-Fruited Sedge
Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Smooth-fruited sedge is a California native perennial sedge found in the Klamath Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains, Warner Mountains, and eastern Sierra Nevada in meadows, forest openings, and rocky slopes at elevations of 1,300 to 4,000 meters. Its flowering period and flower characteristics are not specified in the available data. Growing in dense tufts with stems 25 to 100 centimeters tall, this sedge forms robust clumps in mountain habitats. Its leaves are relatively narrow, with blades 2 to 7 millimeters wide, and feature distinctive spikelets with pistillate flowers that have brown to dark purple bracts. The plant produces small fruits 1 to 2 millimeters long, with perigynia that can be green, brown, or dark purple, typically rounded at the tip with a very short beak.
Habitat: Meadows, forest openings, rocky slopes
Elevation: 1300-4000 m
Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SNH, SnGb, SnBr, SnJt, Wrn, SNE (Sweetwater Mtns), W&I
California counties: Fresno, Plumas, Mono, San Bernardino, El Dorado, Los Angeles, Tulare, Alpine, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa, Modoc, Nevada, Trinity, Tuolumne, Riverside, Placer, Shasta, Lassen, Sierra, Glenn, Butte, Tehama, Calaveras, Alameda, Siskiyou, Amador
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.