Carex hoodii
Hood's sedge
Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Hood's sedge is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, San Bernardino Mountains, North American Great Basin, and White and Inyo Mountains on rocky or gravelly slopes and meadow edges at elevations of 650 to 3,600 meters. Its inflorescence features dense clusters 0.8 to 2 centimeters long with 4 to 8 spikelets, characterized by red-brown pistillate flower bracts with green midribs and white margins. Growing in tufted clusters with leaf blades 1.5 to 3.5 millimeters wide, this sedge develops compact, clustered stems. Its distinctive leaves are narrow and form dense, clustered mats with copper-brown perigynia spreading 3.4 to 5 millimeters long. The fruit is small, measuring 1.7 to 2.1 millimeters with a short, slightly notched beak.
Habitat: Rocky or gravelly slopes, meadow edges
Elevation: 650-3600 m
Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaRH, SNH, SnBr, MP, W&I
California counties: Butte, El Dorado, Glenn, Plumas, Alpine, Fresno, Humboldt, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Siskiyou, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Inyo, Riverside, San Bernardino, Shasta, Modoc, Madera, Tehama, Mariposa, Colusa, Lassen, Sierra, Kern, Lake, 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.