Suaeda nigra  ( ) ( ) Suaeda torreyana, Suaeda fruticosa Chenopodiaceae Suaeda torreyana: plants green, essentially glabrous or sometimes puberulent or sparsely pubescent above, much-branched, erect or ascending. 3-10 dm. tall; twigs and branches usually slender, the internodes usually conspicuous; leaves 2-3 cm. long, linear, very evidently flat, those of the inflorescence becoming reduced to 1-3 times as long as the flower cluster; flowers 1-5 in a cluster in the leaf axils, the clusters separated by the slender, often wiry, internode; calyx deeply cleft, the lobes rounded on back; seeds black, minutely tuberculate. Alkaline floodlands: east of the Sierra Nevada, also Colorado River area and Imperial Valley; north to eastern Oregon, east to Utah and New Mexico. The plants most obviously pubescent have been segregated as Sueda ramosissimma , but intergradations seem to make clear definition difficult between S. ramosissima and S. torreyana .  "A Flora of the Marshes of...

  Salicornia pacifica  ( ) ( ) Amaranthaceae Suffruticose perennial, erect, decumbent, or prostate, usually from a horizontal rhizome, occasionally rooting along the decumbent or prostrate branches, or the individual plant solitary and erect; joints constricted at nodes, 2-5 mm. thick; leaves reduced to a perfoliate collar with opposite cusps, these often obscure, glabrous, glaucous or green; spikers 1-10 cm. long, terminating the ultimate branches, the joints 1.5-2.5 mm. long, usually wider than long, the middle flower of each triad only slightly higher than the lateral ones; sepals 4 or 3, fuses or sometimes those of lateral flowers nearly free; stamens 2, not simultaneous in anthesis; seeds covered with white stiff, appressed hairs, falling free from calyx on dehiscence or adhering to it and falling with it. Salt marshes along the coast: from Baja California to British Columbia, and sparingly in wet saline or alkaline floodlands in the interior. Specimens from the interior ...

  Nitrophila occidentalis  ( ) ( ) Amaranthaceae Low, perennial, rhizomatous, glabrous herb; leaves sessile, fleshy, linear, pungent, 1-3 cm. long, reduced upward, opposite; flowers axillary, perfect sepats 5 to 7, imbricate, carinate; petals none; stamens 5, united at base into a thin yellowish disc; style longer than the subglobose ovary; stigmas 2; achene beaked by the persistent style, included within the connivent sepals, the pericarp membranous. Moist alkaline soils: Central Valley, and east of the Sierra Nevada; south to Baja California.  "A Flora of the Marshes of California. Herbert L. Mason".

  Juncus torreyi  ( ) ( ) Juncaceae Stems stout, 2-6 dm. tall, arising singly from tuber-like thickenings on slender rootstocks; leaves terete, the blades more or less abruptly divergent from the stem, 2-5 mm. thick, auricled; inflorescence terminal with 1 to many many-flowered heads forming a condensed panicle, the entire cluster subtended by a long-pointed sheath; perianth segments light brown, lanceolate-subulate, 4-5 mm. long, the outer segments longer than the inner ones; stamens 6, about 1/2 as long as the perianth; capsule subulate, golden brown, as long as the perianth; seeds reticulate. Wet places at elevations below 5,000 feet: almost throughout coastal and desert southern California, Modoc County; east to Atlantic.  "A Flora of the Marshes of California. Herbert L. Mason".

  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...