Eleocharis torticulmis is a rare species of flowering plant in the sedge family

Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

 known by the common names twisted spikerush and twist-stem spikerush. It is endemic to Plumas County, California

Plumas County, California

Plumas County is a county located in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California. The county gets its name from the Spanish words for the Feather River , which flows through the county. As of the 2010 census, the population 20,007, down from 20,824 at the 2000 census...

, where it is known from two locations within a kilometer of each other in the Butterfly Valley Botanical Area

Butterfly Valley Botanical Area

Butterfly Valley Botanical Area, in the northern Sierra Nevada, was designated a protected botanical area in 1976 due to its abundance and diversity of plant life. It is located just north of Quincy, in Plumas County of northeastern California, United States. The diverse and unique plant community...

. It grows in open wet habitat such as fen

Fen

A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...

s and meadow

Meadow

A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...

s. It was separated from Eleocharis suksdorfiana and described to science as a new species in 2001.

This perennial spikerush grows from a tiny rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

 and a small, hard caudex

Caudex

A caudex is a form of stem morphology appearing as a thickened, short, perennial stem that is either underground or near ground level . It may be swollen for the purpose of water storage, especially in xerophytes...

. It produces a tuft of erect stems 20 to 40 centimeters tall. Each stem is spirally twisted and contracted near the tip, becoming somewhat flattened. The spikelet is under a centimeter long and contains up to 10 tiny flowers.