Carex straminiformis

Mount shasta sedge, Mount Shasta Sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mount shasta sedge is a California native perennial sedge found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Warner Mountains, and eastern Sierra Nevada on dry rocky or gravelly slopes at elevations of 1,700 to 4,100 meters. Its inflorescence produces distinctive spikelets with red-brown to white bracts, featuring a pale green center with white margins. Growing with relatively narrow leaves 3 to 4 millimeters wide that are flat or folded, often with cross-wrinkled sheaths, this sedge forms dense clumps. Its leaves have a small ligule measuring 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters long, with distinctive leaf sheaths that show interesting textural wrinkles. The fruit is small, approximately 1.7 to 2.4 millimeters long, with a gold or green perimeter and a beak 1.2 to 1.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Common. Dry rocky or gravelly slopes

Elevation: 1700-4100 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaRH, SNH, Wrn, SNE

California counties: Siskiyou, Fresno, Mono, Alpine, El Dorado, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa, Nevada, Tulare, Tuolumne, Placer, Butte, Modoc, Tehama, Shasta, Amador, Lassen, Sierra, Plumas, Glenn, Humboldt, Trinity

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