Eleocharis bella

Beautiful spikerush

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Beautiful spikerush is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, southern Coast Ranges, southwestern California, and Great Basin in fresh wet bare soil habitats at elevations up to 2,300 meters. Flowering from spring to summer, this delicate plant produces small, barely noticeable flowers in slender spikes. Growing in tiny tufts or small mats with extremely thin stems just 1 to 7 centimeters tall, it forms weak rhizomes less than 0.3 millimeters in diameter. Its leaf sheaths are particularly fragile, often disintegrating and ending in acute tips. The tiny fruit is white or pale, featuring 6 to 10 longitudinal ridges with 20 to 30 crossbars, creating a subtle textural complexity.

Habitat: Common. Fresh wet bare soil

Bloom period: Spring-summer

Elevation: < 2300 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, ScV, SCoRO, SW, GB

California counties: Plumas, Riverside, San Bernardino, Butte, San Diego, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Modoc, Nevada, Placer, Shasta, Siskiyou, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Mono, Alpine, Humboldt, Sacramento, Tehama, Sierra, Amador, Madera, Mendocino, Yuba, Lassen, Lake, Ventura, Napa, Inyo

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