Isoetes nuttallii

Nuttall's quillwort

Family: Isoetaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Nuttall's quillwort is a California native perennial found in northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, northern San Joaquin Valley, central western California, southern California, Peninsular Ranges, and western Modoc Plateau in seasonally wet soil and temporary streams at elevations generally below 1,500 meters. No flowering information is available for this species. Growing with rigid, brittle leaves generally over 8 centimeters long and more than 1 millimeter wide, this quillwort has a distinctive white to brownish base often surrounded by several black scales. Its leaves are light green to gray-green, tapering to a delicate point and deciduous in nature. The plant produces male spores approximately 0.02 to 0.03 millimeters in size and larger female spores 0.35 to 0.6 millimeters long that are somewhat shiny and slightly tubercled.

Habitat: Seasonally wet soil, temporary streams

Elevation: generally < 1500(2760) m

Bioregions: NCoR, CaR, SN, ScV, n SnJV, CW (exc SCoRI), SCo, PR, w MP

California counties: Tulare, Shasta, San Luis Obispo, Tuolumne, Alpine, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Mendocino, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, San Diego, Trinity, Lassen, Sierra, Marin, Madera, Sonoma, Yuba, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Lake, Sutter, Merced, Santa Clara, Plumas, Kern, Tehama, Placer, Sacramento, Modoc, Humboldt, Stanislaus, Amador, Solano

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