The California Biologist's Handbook

Umbrella sedge is a rhizomatous perennial grass with flat to v-shaped grasslike leaves. The flowers occur in spherical spikelets comprised of several floral scales. Several spikelets, each on its own stem, explode from the top of the main stem to

Sedges are grass-like perennials typically associated with wet habitats, and have long parallel veined leaves that arise basally and are often clumping. Sedges leaves are in three rows, stems are triangular and solid, which distinguishes them from grasses that have

Saltmarsh bulrush is a perennial reed-like grass found at coastal and inland shorelines. This species can occur in strongly saline areas such as saltwater marshes and is typically found in seaside wetlands. Flowers range from bright brown to very pale

Sedges are perennial grasses and grass-like monocots with 3-rows of channeled leaves that are often rough, and triangular stems (typically) that are remembered by botanists with the rhyme “sedges have edges, but grasses have knees”. Flowers are greenish-to-brownish spikelets of

Onions are monocots that are perennial grasses with onion-scented bulbs and star-shaped flowers arranged in bracted umbels. The bulbs send between 1-4 onion-scented leaves that are flat and linear, sickle-shaped, or hollow and tubular. There are approximately 300 species in

Soap plant is a perennial grass native to California that has flexible and wavy blue-green leaves that rise from a fibrous underground bulb in late fall. The star-shaped, lily-like flowers arrive in spring and open late in the afternoon to

Agaves are monocots that are typically rosetted with enormous, tough and fibrous, sword-like leaves. Most shrub and tree form agaves have simple, mostly succulent leaves with teeth on the edges (serrate) and often spine-tipped, and the herb and grasses of

California least tern (Sternula antillarum browni) is the smallest of the North American terns and is found along the Pacific Coast of California, from San Francisco southward to Baja California, Mexico. California least terns nest in colonies on relatively open

Yuma Ridgway’s rail (Rallus longirostris yumanensis) is the only subspecies of Ridgway’s rail found in freshwater marshes. Historically, cattail/bulrush marshes in the Colorado River Delta were the likely stronghold for the species. The virtual elimination of freshwater flows down the Lower Colorado River to

Light-footed Ridgway’s rail (Rallus longirostris levipes)  is a medium sized, tawny, and graybrown colored marsh bird which inhabits coastal marshes, lagoons, and their maritime environs in southern California, United States, and northern Baja California, Mexico. They require shallow water and mudflats for foraging,