Carex dilutaM.Bieb.

sedge

WFO wfo-0000346057 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Carex diluta, photographed by Alexander Dubynin
fig. a Alexander Dubynin, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-06-15 / obs. 42097402
Carex diluta, photographed by Alexander Dubynin
fig. b Alexander Dubynin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 74655087
Carex diluta, photographed by Alexander Dubynin
fig. c Alexander Dubynin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 42097372
Carex diluta, photographed by Юлия
fig. d Юлия, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 79132629
Carex diluta, photographed by Alexander Dubynin
fig. e Alexander Dubynin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 75904944
Carex diluta, photographed by Alexander Dubynin
fig. f Alexander Dubynin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 74655132
Carex diluta, photographed by Alexander Dubynin
fig. g Alexander Dubynin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 75904960
Carex diluta, photographed by Alexander Dubynin
fig. h Alexander Dubynin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 74655110

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 23 botanical countries

Regions where Carex diluta is native: Afghanistan, Altay, Buryatiya, Iran, Iraq, Irkutsk, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine AfghanistanAltayBuryatiyaIranIraqIrkutskKazakhstanKirgizstanMongoliaNorth CaucasusTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanWest SiberiaNepalPakistanWest HimalayaCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaSouth European RussiaUkraine
Native distribution of Carex diluta, 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
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Altay ALT
Buryatiya BRY
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Irkutsk IRK
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Central European Russia RUC EUROPE
East European Russia RUE
South European Russia RUS
Ukraine UKR
Nepal NEP ASIA-TROPICAL
Pakistan PAK
West Himalaya WHM

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 100 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -26.0 °C -17.7 °C -4.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.2 °C 24.4 °C 27.7 °C
Annual rainfall 327 mm 444 mm 772 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 29 mm 61 mm 103 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 100 research-grade observations of Carex diluta 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 16 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 aitchisonii Boeckeler
  • Carex aspratilis V.I.Krecz.
  • Carex axillaris Link
  • Carex chorgosica Meinsh.
  • Carex czarwakensis Litv.
  • Carex diluta f. subdistans Kük.
  • Carex diluta subsp. diluta
  • Carex diluta var. chorgosica (Meinsh.) Kük.
  • Carex diluta var. karelinii (Meinsh.) Kük.
  • Carex diluta var. microlepis (Boeckeler) Kük.
  • Carex distans subsp. aspratilis (V.I.Krecz.) T.V.Egorova
  • Carex extensa C.A.Mey.
  • Carex hornschuchiana var. diluta (M.Bieb.) Nyman
  • Carex karelinii Meinsh.
  • Carex karelinii var. aspratilis (V.I.Krecz.) Serg.
  • Carex microlepis Boeckeler

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol CADI44. public domain. 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.