Carex scirpoidea subsp. pseudoscirpoidea
Western single-spiked sedge, Western Single-Spiked Sedge
Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Conservation status: CNPS 2B.2
Western single-spiked sedge is a rare (CNPS 2B.2) California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada and White and Inyo Mountains in rocky, occasionally limey seasonally wet places at elevations of 2,100 to 3,700 meters. Flowering in late summer, this dioecious sedge produces inconspicuous brown to black spikelets with white-margined bracts. Growing with rhizomatous stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, it forms stiff-erect clusters with narrow leaves 1.5 to 4 millimeters wide. Its leaves are exceeded by the inflorescence, with occasional fine red dots on the leaf sheaths and a ligule that may be longer than wide. The fruit consists of small, nearly equally sized perigynia that are approximately 1.5 to 2.1 millimeters long, with ascending purplish perigynia bearing a short 0.4 to 0.7 millimeter beak.
Habitat: Rocky, occasionally limey seasonally wet places
Elevation: 2100-3700 m
Bioregions: SNH, W&I
California counties: Mono, San Bernardino, Alpine, Siskiyou, Tuolumne, Nevada
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.