Carex pellita

Woolly sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Woolly sedge is a California native perennial found in coastal, northern California, Klamath Ranges, high Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Great Basin regions in marshy places and creekbanks at elevations of 60 to 3,300 meters. Flowering from late spring to summer, this sedge produces purple-brown spikelets with narrow white margins. Growing with rhizomatous stems 30 to 100 centimeters tall, it develops dense clumps in wet habitats. Its leaves are flat or folded in an M-shape, 2 to 4.5 millimeters wide, with a prominent sharp midvein keel. The fruit features thick-walled perigynia 2.8 to 5 millimeters long, generally purple with an outcurved beak.

Habitat: Generally marshy places, creekbanks

Elevation: 60-3300 m

Bioregions: NCo, KR, CaRH, SNH, CCo, SnFrB, SnGb, SnBr, GB, DMoj

California counties: Inyo, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Kern, Mono, Santa Barbara, Plumas, Alpine, El Dorado, Modoc, Nevada, Placer, Riverside, Solano, Orange, Sierra, Madera, Lassen, Marin, Contra Costa, Butte, Mariposa, Tehama, Del Norte, Ventura, Shasta, Humboldt, Monterey, Lake

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