Eleocharis acicularis

Needle spikerush

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Needle spikerush is a native perennial found in wetland and aquatic habitats, often forming dense mats in shallow water environments. Typically flowering throughout the summer months, this small rush produces minute flowers in compact spikes typically 2 to 8 millimeters long. Growing with slender, thread-like stems 1 to 60 centimeters tall, it can form delicate, spreading ground cover with weak rhizomes less than half a millimeter in diameter. Its stems are distinctively thin, measuring just 0.2 to 0.5 millimeters wide, and often have three to twelve subtle angles or ridges along their length. The fruit is tiny, approximately 1 millimeter long, with eight to twelve longitudinal ridges and a distinctive white to pale coloration.

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

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