Carex spissa

San diego sedge, San Diego Sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

San diego sedge is a California native perennial found in the central coast, southern coast, and Peninsular Ranges in creekbanks, seeps, and canyon bottoms at elevations up to 1,200 meters. Flowering from spring to summer, this sedge produces gold to red-brown flower bracts with white margins, creating delicate clusters along its stems. Growing as a robust, dense clump with stout stems reaching 1 to 1.8 meters tall, it develops thick blue-green leaves 6 to 18 millimeters wide with very sharply scabrous margins. Its leaves have a distinctive blue-green coloration, especially when young, with a striking texture that gives the plant a unique architectural quality. The fruit is small, obovate, and subtly colored with green and red dots, forming dense clusters along the lateral spikelets.

Habitat: Creekbanks, seeps, canyon bottoms, on serpentine or not

Elevation: < 1200 m

Bioregions: CCo, SCo, PR

California counties: San Diego, Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange, San Luis Obispo, Riverside, Ventura

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