Eleocharis parvula

Small spikerush, Small Spikerush

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Small spikerush is a native perennial found in coastal bioregions of Northern California Coast, San Francisco Bay, and Southern California in brackish wet soils at elevations below 50 meters. Flowering from late winter through fall, this delicate plant produces tiny inconspicuous flowers in slender spikelets 2 to 4 millimeters long. Growing with extremely thin stems just 2 to 9 centimeters tall, it features weak rhizomes that often develop small curved tubers near their tips. Its distal leaf sheaths are fragile and tend to disintegrate, with rounded tips characterizing the plant's minimalist structure. The fruit is smooth, three-sided, and typically 1 to 1.2 millimeters wide, with six perianth bristles that are about equal to or slightly longer than the fruit.

Habitat: Brackish wet soil, coastal

Bloom period: Late winter-fall

Elevation: < 50 m

Bioregions: NCo, SnFrB, SCo

California counties: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Bernardino, Humboldt, Glenn, Orange, Sonoma, Napa, Sacramento, Alameda, Riverside, Marin, Lassen

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