Carex praticola

Northern meadow sedge, Northern Meadow Sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.2

Northern meadow sedge is a rare (CNPS 2B.2) California native perennial found in northern coastal California, including Humboldt County, and central Sierra Nevada Mountains in moist to wet meadows, riparian edges, and open forests at elevations of 500 to 3,200 meters. Flowering from late spring to summer, this sedge produces inflorescences that are white, green, gold, or dark brown, with spikelets 25 to 50 millimeters long and often bent at the lowest node. Growing with slender stems 25 to 80 centimeters tall, it forms delicate clumps with narrow leaf blades 1.5 to 4 millimeters wide. Its leaves have a distinctive short ligule less than 2.5 millimeters long, with spikelets that are oblanceolate to wide-ovate and often long-tapered at the base. The fruit is characterized by cream-white, green, or gold perigynia with translucent walls, typically 4.5 to 6.5 millimeters long and narrowing to a short brown beak.

Habitat: Moist to wet meadows, riparian edges, open forest

Elevation: (20)500-3200 m

Bioregions: NCo (Humboldt Co.), NCoRO, NCoRH, c SNH

California counties: Humboldt, Marin, Del Norte, Lake, Tuolumne, Tehama, Mono, Trinity, Siskiyou, Tulare, El Dorado

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