Schoenoplectus californicus  (California bulrush) ( ) Scirpus californicus Cyperaceae Perennial sedge with stout, subterete to triangular culms to 4 m. tall; leaves reduced to basal sheaths; involucral leaf solitary, erect, shorter than inflorescence; inflorescence loosely umbellate; spikelets narrow, acute, 5-10 mm long; scales ovate, reddish brown; bristles 2-4 dark red, or sometimes pale red, broad and ciliate or plumose, not barbed; style bifid; achene lenticular, 2 mm. long. Common in marshes along coast from San Diego County to Napa County; Central Valley, occasional in the Mojave Desert (Lancaster, Needles). This species is similar in aspect to Scirpus acutus. It can be distinguished, however, not only by the characters given in the key, but also by its subterete to triangular culms (most noticeable in the upper parts); in S. acutus the culms are terete throughout their length. Also, the spikelets of   S. californicus are smaller, and the scales are more con...

  Schoenoplectus americanus  (Three-square bulrush) ( ) Scirpus americanus Cyperaceae Perennial with horizontal rhizomes; culms erect or arched, sharply triangular, stiff and slender, 0.3-1.1 m. tall; leaf blades to 18 cm. long, keeled, convolute, narrow, 2-3 mm. wide; involucral leaf solitary. 3-10 cm. long; inflorescence a capitate cluster of 1-7 spikelets oblong, acuminate, 8-12 mm. long; scales pale brown to chocolate brown, cleft at apex, short-awned; bristles 2-6, downwardly barbed, unequal in length, from slightly longer than only 1/2 as long as the achene; style 2- or 3-cleft; achene lenticular, or obtusely trigonous, mucronate, 3 mm. long. Widely distributed in wet ground: along coast from Ventura county to Del Norte County, occasional in San Bernardino County and Imperial County; Inyo, Mono, Lassen, and Modoc counties; San Joaquin Valley; occasional in Sacramento Valley.  "A Flora of the Marshes of California. Herbert L. Mason". Scirpus olneyi Perennial sedge wi...

  Eleocharis geniculata  ( ) ( ) Cyperaceae Annual with fibrous roots and caespitose culms; culms subfiliform, striate, 5-25 cm. tall, or sometimes 40 cm. tall; basal leaf sheaths loose, obliquely truncate, with an attenuate tooth; spikelets ovoid, obtuse, much thicker than the culm, many-flowered; scales ovate, obtuse, pale brown with a scarious margin; bristles 6-8, as long as achene; stamens 2 or 3; style bifid; achene depressed, constricted at base, apiculate, spongy, whitish. Marshes and watercourses in southern California: San Bernardino, Riverside, and Imperial counties, widespread.  "A Flora of the Marshes of California. Herbert L. Mason".

  Phragmites australis  (common reed) ( ) Phragmites communis Poaceae Perennial; culms robust, erect, 2-4 m. tall, with stout, creeping rhizomes, these sometimes on the surface forming leafy stolons as much as 9 m. long; blades broad, flat, 2-6 dm. long, the rachilla clothed with long, silky hairs as long as or shorter than the florets, disarticulating above the glumes and at the base of each joint between the florets; lowest floret staminate or neuter; glumes lanceolate, acute, unequal in size, the first glume about 1/2 a long as the upper glume, the second one shorter than the florets; lemmas narrow, long-acuminate, glabrous, 3-nerved, the florets successively smaller; palea much shorter than the lemma. In fresh-water marshes, on banks of streams, and along irrigation ditches: well established in wet places in the Colorado and Mojave deserts, less common and at scattered localities along the coast from San Diego County to Del Norte County, in the delta region, also east of t...

  Distichlis spicata  (Saltgrass) ( ) Gramineae Culms 1-4 dm. tall, erect or in coastal plants sometimes prostrate and strongly stoloniferous; blades numerous, spreading or sometimes closely ascending or erect, either as long as or longer than or sometimes shorter than the spikes; spikes green, drying straw brown, or in coastal plants often purplish-tinged, 1-6 cm. long, ovate to oblong; spikelets mostly 1-2 cm. long, the pistillate spikelets often congested and more or less closely imbricate, the staminate ones usually less congested and more or less closely imbricate, the individual spikelets more easily distinguished; the first glume 2-3 mm. long, the second 3-4 mm. long, lemmas 3-6 mm. long, the pistillate lemmas more coriaceous and closely imbricate than the staminate ones, sometimes with a broad hyaline margin; palea 3-5 mm. long, rather soft, narrowly or broadly winged below, often with hyaline margins, the keels minutely serrate or serrate-ciliate to near the base, les...

  Typha angustifolia  (Narrow-leaved cattail) ( ) Typhaceae Slender perennial 0.5-1.5 m. tall; pith of stem white; stems about 2/3 as long as the leaves; leaves narrow, plano-concave or plano-convex or strongly convex on the back, 5-6 mm. wide, dark green; sheaths appearing cylindrical below but actually open to base, usually conspicuously auriculate above, rarely some sheaths tapering to the blade, the auricles scarious-margined; pistillate and staminate spikes usually separated by a distance twice as great as the diameter of the pistillate spike or greater, rarely less than 0.5 cm. or more than 12 cm. apart; pistillate spike dark brown to reddish brown or in age becoming greenish brown or mottled, usually 6-10 times as long as broad, 8-20 cm. long, 1.8-2.5 cm. thick; pistillate flowers arranged on compound pedicels which when stripped of appendages appear smooth; bracts spatulate, truncate, their blades dark brown, opaque, and firm, slender-stalked; fertile flowers pediceled...