Carex lemmonii

Lemmon's sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Lemmon's sedge is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, southern North Coast Ranges, Lake County, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and Transverse and Peninsular Ranges in marshes, bogs, and meadows at elevations of 700 to 3,000 meters. A tufted sedge with white, green, gold, or red-brown to dark purple flower bracts, it forms dense clumps with slender stems 20 to 80 centimeters tall. Growing with narrow leaf blades 1.5 to 4.5 millimeters wide, the plant develops compact inflorescences generally less than 40 centimeters long with terminal and lateral spikelets. Its distinctive fruits are small, measuring 1.5 to 1.9 millimeters long, with green or occasionally red-brown or purple-blotched perigynia that have slightly ciliate tips. The sedge's complex coloration and delicate structure make it a subtle but intricate component of montane wetland ecosystems.

Habitat: Marshes, bogs, meadows, occasionally on serpentine

Elevation: (30)700-3000 m

Bioregions: KR, s NCoRI (Sonoma Co.), s NCoRO (Lake Co.), CaRH, SNH, SnBr, SnJt.

California counties: Fresno, San Bernardino, Plumas, Tulare, Butte, El Dorado, Mariposa, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Riverside, Sonoma, Sierra, Kern, Shasta, Tuolumne, Glenn, Tehama, Madera, Trinity, Alpine, Siskiyou, Yuba, Lake, Lassen

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