Carex tumulicola

Foothill sedge

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Foothill sedge is a California native perennial sedge found in northern California coastal, northern coastal, Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, central coastal, San Francisco Bay, and Channel Islands bioregions in meadows and open woodland at elevations below 1,800 meters. Without specific flowering time data, its botanical characteristics include an open, often flexible inflorescence 2 to 5 centimeters long with bristle-like bracts. Growing in loosely clustered tufts with slender stems, this sedge has narrow leaf blades 1 to 2.5 millimeters wide. Its distinctive pistillate flower bracts are red with white margins and have small awns, while the perigynia are light green to brown and 3.5 to 5 millimeters long with a short beak. The mature fruit is small, measuring 1.8 to 2.3 millimeters with a slightly notched tip.

Habitat: Meadows, open woodland

Elevation: < 1800 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoR, SN, ScV, CCo, SnFrB, ChI

California counties: Mendocino, Sonoma, Alameda, Fresno, Humboldt, Marin, Monterey, San Francisco, San Mateo, Los Angeles, Contra Costa, Amador, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Luis Obispo, Mariposa, Santa Barbara, Lake, Napa, Madera, Colusa, Butte, Merced, Placer, Solano, Tuolumne, Modoc, Sacramento, El Dorado, Orange

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