Carex phaeocephala

Dunhead or alpine hare sedge, Dunhead, Alpine Hare Sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Dunhead sedge is a California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Tehachapi Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains, Warner Mountains, and eastern Sierra Nevada in dry, often rocky soils at elevations of 2,500 to 4,000 meters. Its inflorescence features gold to brown or brown and green spikelets 10 to 35 millimeters long, creating distinctive club-shaped clusters. Growing with slender stems 5 to 40 centimeters tall, this sedge has narrow leaves 1.2 to 2.5 millimeters wide that are typically folded or downcurved. Its leaves feature small ligules less than 2.5 millimeters long, with pistillate flower bracts 3.7 to 5.1 millimeters long in dark brown to orange tones. The fruit develops with pale green to cream-white perigynia that have thin, somewhat translucent walls and a subtle green margin.

Habitat: dry often rocky soils, slopes

Elevation: 2500-4000 m

Bioregions: CaRH, SNH, SnGb, SnBr, SnJt, Wrn, SNE

California counties: Mono, San Bernardino, Inyo, Los Angeles, Alpine, Fresno, Madera, Siskiyou, Tulare, Tuolumne, Riverside, El Dorado, Shasta, Trinity, Lassen, Modoc, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer

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