Eleocharis macrostachya

Common spikerush

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Common spikerush is a native perennial found in California's wetland regions, thriving in fresh to brackish habitats at elevations from 10 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from spring to summer, this plant produces small spikelets 5 to 40 millimeters long with numerous compact flower bracts. Growing with cylindrical stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall and spreading via tough rhizomes up to 2 millimeters in diameter, it forms dense clusters in wet environments. Its leaf sheaths are firm and persistent, with truncate to obtuse tips that sometimes feature a tiny tooth-like projection less than 1 millimeter long. The fruit is small, about 1.1 to 1.9 millimeters long, with smooth or finely roughened surfaces and typically lacking perianth bristles.

Habitat: Common. Fresh to brackish wetland

Bloom period: Spring-summer

Elevation: 10-2300 m

Bioregions: CA

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

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