Carex duriusculaC.A.Mey.

needleleaf sedge

WFO wfo-0000346270 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex duriuscula, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. a Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-29 / obs. 201718727
Carex duriuscula, photographed by dghjertaas
fig. b dghjertaas, CC0 1.0 / obs. 199159161
Carex duriuscula, photographed by Rob Foster
fig. c Rob Foster, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197672817
Carex duriuscula, photographed by F Quiec
fig. d F Quiec, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 196459904
Carex duriuscula, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. e Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131443134
Carex duriuscula, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. f Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131443198
Carex duriuscula, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. g Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160772440
Carex duriuscula, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. h Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 128348499

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
4322148
Filed as
Carex duriuscula C.A.Mey.
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
not recorded
Origin
not recorded
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. We link to the digitised sheet rather than rehosting it, because the holding institutions do not serve their images to third parties reliably and we are not going to show you a picture we cannot actually deliver. 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 sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 43 botanical countries

Regions where Carex duriuscula is native: Altay, Amur, China North-Central, China Southeast, Inner Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Korea, Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Primorye, Qinghai, West Siberia, Yakutiya, New Guinea, East European Russia, Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Oregon, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Yukon AltayAmurChina North-CentralChina SoutheastInner MongoliaKazakhstanMagadanManchuriaMongoliaPrimoryeQinghaiWest SiberiaYakutiyaNew GuineaEast European RussiaAlaskaAlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoIllinoisIowaKansasManitobaMichiganMinnesotaMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesOregonSaskatchewanSouth DakotaUtahWashingtonWyomingYukon Korea
Native distribution of Carex duriuscula, 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
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Manitoba MAN
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Oregon ORE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
China North-Central CHN
China Southeast CHS
Inner Mongolia CHI
Kazakhstan KAZ
Korea KOR
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Primorye PRM
Qinghai CHQ
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
New Guinea NWG ASIA-TROPICAL
East European Russia RUE EUROPE

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 480 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -29.3 °C -22.4 °C -7.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.8 °C 24.3 °C 30.0 °C
Annual rainfall 159 mm 375 mm 696 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 6 mm 29 mm 79 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 480 research-grade observations of Carex duriuscula 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 12 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 duriuscula var. interrupta Litv.
  • Carex duriuscula var. tenuispica X.Y.Yuan
  • Carex eleocharis L.H.Bailey
  • Carex rigescens (Franch.) V.I.Krecz.
  • Carex sohachii Ohwi
  • Carex stenophylla subsp. eleocharis (L.H.Bailey) Hultén
  • Carex stenophylla subsp. rigescens (S.Yun Liang) S.Yun Liang & Y.C.Tang
  • Carex stenophylla var. duriuscula (C.A.Mey.) Trautv.
  • Carex stenophylla var. eleocharis (L.H.Bailey) Breitung
  • Carex stenophylla var. humilis Meinsh.
  • Carex stenophylla var. rigescens Franch.
  • Vignea duriuscula (C.A.Mey.) Soják

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.