Eleocharis bolanderi

Bolander's spikerush

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Bolander's spikerush is a native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada and Modoc Plateau bioregions in fresh wet meadows, fens, springs, and stream margins at elevations of 410 to 1,580 meters. Flowering from late spring to summer, this plant produces small spikes with numerous inconspicuous flowers. Growing in rounded colonies with slender stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall, it forms dense clusters emerging from a hidden rhizome-like caudex. Its leaf sheaths are firm and persistent, with obtuse tips, and the stems are nearly cylindrical and quite narrow at just 0.3 to 0.5 millimeters in diameter. The tiny fruit is straw-colored, finely wrinkled, and bears vestigial perianth bristles that are less than half the fruit's length.

Habitat: Uncommon, local. Fresh wet meadows, fens, springs, stream margins

Bloom period: Late spring-summer

Elevation: 410-1580 m

Bioregions: SN, MP

California counties: Madera, Lassen, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Modoc, Butte, San Bernardino, Yuba, Colusa, Amador, Sierra, Trinity, Shasta

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