Eleocharis decumbens

Decumbent spikerush

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Decumbent spikerush is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, high Cascade Range, and Sierra Nevada in fresh wet meadows, fens, seeps, and lake shores at elevations of 500 to 2,500 meters. Flowering during summer, this plant produces small spikelets 3 to 8 millimeters long with tightly clustered green to brown flowers. Growing with slender stems 10 to 50 centimeters tall and a tough rhizome 3 to 5 millimeters in diameter, it forms dense clumps in moist habitats. Its leaf sheaths are firm and persistent, with tips that are slightly truncate to obtuse. The fruit is a small three-sided structure about 1 to 1.3 millimeters long, accompanied by six delicate perianth bristles that are typically as long as or longer than the seed's base.

Habitat: Fresh wet meadows, fens, seeps, lake shores

Bloom period: Summer

Elevation: 500-2500 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRI, CaRH, SN

California counties: Butte, Siskiyou, El Dorado, Mariposa, Trinity, Tulare, Inyo, Calaveras, Fresno, Sierra, Plumas, Nevada, Madera, Tuolumne

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