Carex leptopoda

Slender-footed sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Slender-footed sedge is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, northern Sierra Nevada, Sierra Nevada, Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, and southwestern California in moist soil and wooded areas at elevations below 2,400 meters. This sedge produces pale flowers in inflorescences 2 to 4 centimeters long with 5 to 15 millimeter spikelets. Growing with loosely clustered stems 20 to 80 centimeters tall, it forms a distinctive clumped growth pattern. Its leaf blades are 2.4 to 5.9 millimeters wide, with pistillate flower bracts that are generally white. The fruit is small, measuring 1.5 to 1.9 millimeters long, with a green, lanceolate perigynia that has a short beak 0.9 to 1.7 millimeters long.

Habitat: Moist soil, wooded areas

Elevation: < 2400 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, n SNF, SNH, CCo, SnFrB, SW

California counties: Sonoma, Fresno, Mendocino, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Modoc, Siskiyou, Butte, Los Angeles, El Dorado, Santa Cruz, Tulare, Alameda, Plumas, Tuolumne, Placer, Sierra, Calaveras, Trinity, Tehama, Alpine, Contra Costa, Monterey, San Francisco, Kern, Napa, Inyo

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