Fimbristylis vahlii

Vahl's fimbristylis

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: annual · Native

Vahl's fimbristylis is a California native annual found in southern Sierra Nevada foothills, San Joaquin Valley, and eastern Sonoran Desert (Imperial County) in moist to wet soils, alluvial banks, and lake margins at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering from July to November, this delicate plant produces small white to tan spikelets in compact head-like clusters 2 to 5 millimeters long. Growing with extremely slender stems less than 0.5 millimeters in diameter and reaching 4 to 15 centimeters tall, it forms low, dense clumps without a rhizome. Its narrow leaves are less than 0.5 millimeters wide, smooth or slightly hairy-rough, with no ligule present. The fruit is a tiny white structure with sharp angles, approximately 0.5 to 0.7 millimeters long with distinctive transverse-rectangular cellular patterns.

Habitat: Moist to wet soil, alluvial or mineralized banks, shores, fluctuating pond, lake margins

Bloom period: Jul-Nov

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: s SNF, SnJV, e DSon (Imperial Co.)

California counties: Merced, Fresno, Tulare, Imperial, Kern, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Kings, Madera

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