Eleocharis flavescens var. flavescens

Yellow spikerush

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Yellow spikerush is a California native perennial found in northern Sierra Nevada and Great Valley bioregions in wet sand, gravel, marshes, and salt flats at elevations below 1,600 meters. Flowering from summer to fall, this plant produces subtle greenish-yellow flowers in compact spikes 1.5 to 9 millimeters long. Growing with slender cylindrical stems 5 to 42 centimeters tall, it emerges from a thin, firm rhizome and forms delicate clumps in wet environments. Its leaves have distinctive inflated, wrinkled sheaths that often disintegrate, with the stem appearing nearly threadlike and approximately 0.3 to 0.6 millimeters in diameter. The fruit is tiny, smooth, and two-sided, with vestigial perianth bristles that may extend slightly beyond the fruit itself.

Habitat: Rare in California. Wet sand, gravel, marsh, brackish canals, hot springs, maritime mud flats, salt marshes

Bloom period: Summer-fall

Elevation: < 1600 m

Bioregions: n SN, GV

California counties: Merced, El Dorado, Kern, Tehama, Stanislaus

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