Cyperus squarrosus

Awned cyperus

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: annual · Native

Awned cyperus is a California native annual sedge found in moist, sunny, disturbed places, especially along pond margins and riverbanks at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from June to November, this plant produces small green to straw-colored flowers in open, wide ovoid spikes 5 to 15 millimeters across. Growing 1 to 10 centimeters tall with delicate, spreading stems, it forms compact clusters in wet habitats. Its flower bracts are distinctively tipped with small, strongly curved bristles about 0.5 to 1.3 millimeters long that give the plant its "awned" characteristic. The tiny fruit is light brown to black and approximately 0.7 to 1.1 millimeters long, developing in compact clusters.

Habitat: Moist, sunny, disturbed places, especially pond margins, riverbanks

Bloom period: Jun, Nov

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: CA

California counties: Lake, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Riverside, Fresno, Alpine, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Modoc, Orange, Plumas, Sacramento, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, Mono, Calaveras, Monterey, Lassen, San Joaquin, Nevada, Contra Costa, Santa Barbara, Amador, Mendocino, Del Norte, Sutter, Sonoma, Napa, Placer, Kings, Tehama, Glenn, Stanislaus, Sierra

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