Schoenoplectus pungens var. longispicatus

Common three-square bulrush

Family: Cyperaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Common three-square bulrush is a native perennial found in northern coastal, Sierra Nevada, San Joaquin Valley, central western, southern coastal, Great Basin, and desert bioregions in fresh or brackish marshes and shores at elevations up to 2,400 meters. Flowering from late spring to summer, this plant produces small brownish to greenish flower spikelets in dense, upright clusters. Growing with distinctive three-sided stems 10 to 200 centimeters tall, it spreads via long rhizomes that are 1 to 6 millimeters in diameter. Its leaves are two to six per stem, roughly three-sided to flat, with blades 2 to 9 millimeters wide that partially extend beyond the stem sheath. The fruit is a small, smooth, three-sided structure 2.5 to 3.5 millimeters long, typically accompanied by six vestigial perianth bristles.

Habitat: Fresh or brackish marshes, shores, fens

Bloom period: Late spring-summer

Elevation: < 2400 m

Bioregions: NCo, SN, SnJV, CW, SCo, GB, D

California counties: Kern, San Bernardino, San Diego, Inyo, Riverside, San Luis Obispo, Mono, Imperial, Modoc, Santa Barbara, Tulare, San Mateo, Los Angeles, San Benito, Colusa, Sierra, Ventura, Humboldt, Marin, Lake, Lassen, Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Yolo, Monterey

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