Carex distichaHuds.

brown sedgetworank sedge

WFO wfo-0000346148 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex disticha, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. a Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-03 / obs. 203794128
Carex disticha, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. b Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 138414017
Carex disticha, photographed by Matteo Marcandella
fig. c Matteo Marcandella, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136704934
Carex disticha, photographed by Mark Pritchard
fig. d Mark Pritchard, CC0 1.0 / obs. 68349461
Carex disticha, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. e Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 42532687
Carex disticha, photographed by duffyr
fig. f duffyr, CC0 1.0 / obs. 39151891
Carex disticha, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. g Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19874953
Carex disticha, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. h Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19758940

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 40 botanical countries

Regions where Carex disticha is native: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Altay, Iran, Irkutsk, Kazakhstan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine AlgeriaLibyaMoroccoTunisiaAltayIranIrkutskKazakhstanNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaYakutiyaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine
Native distribution of Carex disticha, 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
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iran IRN
Irkutsk IRK
Kazakhstan KAZ
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Libya LBY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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 644 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -16.8 °C -3.0 °C 1.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.3 °C 22.6 °C 25.9 °C
Annual rainfall 510 mm 722 mm 1,321 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 69 mm 136 mm 246 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 644 research-grade observations of Carex disticha 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 42 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 disticha f. luxurians (Beck) Almq.
  • Carex disticha f. pangyna Beck
  • Carex disticha f. permixta Beck
  • Carex disticha f. submascula Almq.
  • Carex disticha prol. modesta Rouy
  • Carex disticha subsp. grossheimii (V.I.Krecz.) T.V.Egorova
  • Carex disticha var. capitata Hampe ex O.Lang
  • Carex disticha var. compactior Kük.
  • Carex disticha var. decipiens T.Durand
  • Carex disticha var. distachya O.Lang
  • Carex disticha var. elatior Boeckeler
  • Carex disticha var. floribunda (Peterm.) Peterm.
  • Carex disticha var. floribunda (Peterm.) Peterm.
  • Carex disticha var. gracilis Metsch
  • Carex disticha var. longibracteata Schleich.
  • Carex disticha var. luxurians Beck
  • Carex disticha var. minor Peterm.
  • Carex disticha var. pedunculata Pamp.
  • Carex grossheimii V.I.Krecz.
  • Carex intermedia Gooden.
  • Carex intermedia f. distachya (O.Lang) Kük.
  • Carex intermedia f. elatior (Boeckeler) Kük.
  • Carex intermedia f. floribunda (Peterm.) Kük.
  • Carex intermedia f. longibracteata (Schleich.) Kük.

and 18 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.