Carex albicansWilld. ex Spreng.

whitetinge sedge

WFO wfo-0000344278 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex albicans, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. a Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-04-20 / obs. 122006308
Carex albicans, photographed by Scott Ward
fig. b Scott Ward, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 40537554
Carex albicans, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. c Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203611769
Carex albicans, photographed by Lori Schuster
fig. d Lori Schuster, CC0 1.0 / obs. 196537514
Carex albicans, photographed by Bonnie Semmling
fig. e Bonnie Semmling, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197372779
Carex albicans, photographed by Nathan Aaron
fig. f Nathan Aaron, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 192688467
Carex albicans, photographed by pamelabarnabee
fig. g pamelabarnabee, CC0 1.0 / obs. 191066328
Carex albicans, photographed by Chris Hoess
fig. h Chris Hoess, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 190288994

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
02200970
Filed as
Carex albicans var. emmonsii (Dewey ex Torr.) Rettig
Det. by
R. F. C. Naczi 2013-01-01
Collected
W. D. Longbottom 2012-03-30
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 42 botanical countries

Regions where Carex albicans is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Rhode I., South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNebraskaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNova ScotiaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareRhode I.
Native distribution of Carex albicans, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 536 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -8.5 °C -2.9 °C 1.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.5 °C 30.9 °C 33.0 °C
Annual rainfall 981 mm 1,204 mm 1,422 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 123 mm 245 mm 302 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 536 research-grade observations of Carex albicans that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 36 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Carex alpestris Dewey
  • Carex alpestris var. tripla Dewey
  • Carex artitecta Mack.
  • Carex artitecta f. colorata (L.H.Bailey) D.S.Carp.
  • Carex artitecta var. subtilirostris F.J.Herm.
  • Carex collecta Dewey
  • Carex davisii Dewey
  • Carex davisii f. glabrescens Kük.
  • Carex emmonsii Dewey ex Torr.
  • Carex emmonsii var. australis (L.H.Bailey) Rettig
  • Carex emmonsii var. colorata Howe
  • Carex emmonsii var. distincta Howe
  • Carex emmonsii var. muhlenbergii (A.Gray ex Torr.) Rettig
  • Carex lucorum var. emmonsii (Dewey ex Torr.) Chapm.
  • Carex nigromarginata f. minor Boeckeler
  • Carex nigromarginata var. minor (Boott) Gleason
  • Carex nigromarginata var. muhlenbergii (A.Gray ex Torr.) Gleason
  • Carex novae-angliae var. collecta (Dewey) Dewey
  • Carex novae-angliae var. emmonsii (Dewey ex Torr.) J.Carey
  • Carex pennsylvanica Torr.
  • Carex pensylvanica var. muehlenbergii A.Gray ex Torr.
  • Carex physochynchia Steud.
  • Carex physorhyncha Liebm. ex Steud.
  • Carex pilulifera f. americana Boeckeler

and 12 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.