Carex craweiDewey ex Torr.

Crawe's sedge

WFO wfo-0000345748 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex crawei, photographed by Henry "Nick" Robertson
fig. a Henry "Nick" Robertson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-06-25 / obs. 138908118
Carex crawei, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. b Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 89989657
Carex crawei, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. c Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 47798945
Carex crawei, photographed by Derek
fig. d Derek, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 21622881
Carex crawei, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. e Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 19222218
Carex crawei, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. f Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 10588921
Carex crawei, photographed by Henrique Pacheco
fig. g Henrique Pacheco, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205748719
Carex crawei, photographed by Derek
fig. h Derek, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200489481

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.

Native range 39 botanical countries

Regions where Carex crawei is native: Alabama, Alberta, Arizona, Arkansas, British Columbia, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Brunswick, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming AlabamaAlbertaArizonaArkansasBritish ColumbiaColoradoConnecticutGeorgiaIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyMaineManitobaMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNew BrunswickNew JerseyNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOntarioQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTennesseeUtahVirginiaWashingtonWisconsinWyoming
Native distribution of Carex crawei, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arizona ARI
Arkansas ARK
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Connecticut CNT
Georgia GEO
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
New Brunswick NBR
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Dakota NDA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Utah UTA
Virginia VRG
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO

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 504 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -14.1 °C -9.6 °C -1.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.0 °C 25.0 °C 31.2 °C
Annual rainfall 821 mm 993 mm 1,299 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 125 mm 196 mm 264 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 504 research-grade observations of Carex crawei 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 2 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 crawei Dewey
  • Carex crawei var. heterostachya Dewey

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.