Carex elataAll.

Tufted Sedge

WFO wfo-0000346341 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex elata, photographed by David Sandler
fig. a David Sandler, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-22 / obs. 199792900
Carex elata, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. b Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 178713990
Carex elata, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. c Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 145441027
Carex elata, photographed by Santiago Martín-Bravo
fig. d Santiago Martín-Bravo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 104034729
Carex elata, photographed by Santiago Martín-Bravo
fig. e Santiago Martín-Bravo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 113095476
Carex elata, photographed by Santiago Martín-Bravo
fig. f Santiago Martín-Bravo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 184396713
Carex elata, photographed by Santiago Martín-Bravo
fig. g Santiago Martín-Bravo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 184396052
Carex elata, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. h Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 18178128

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 37 botanical countries

Regions where Carex elata is native: Algeria, Morocco, Iran, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaMoroccoIranNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine FøroyarSardegna
Native distribution of Carex elata, 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
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
Finland FIN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Iran IRN ASIA-TEMPERATE
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Morocco MOR

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 453 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -9.2 °C -3.6 °C 1.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 20.2 °C 23.7 °C 28.3 °C
Annual rainfall 569 mm 786 mm 1,533 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 89 mm 141 mm 291 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 453 research-grade observations of Carex elata 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 cespitosa var. elata (All.) Fiori
  • Carex compressa Gaudin
  • Carex elata f. brachystachys (Podp.) Soó
  • Carex elata f. brachystachys Podp.
  • Carex elata f. glabra (Junge) Soó
  • Carex elata f. pendula (Lange) Soó
  • Carex elata f. riartiana (Legrand) Soó
  • Carex elata f. stenocarpa (Junge) Soó
  • Carex elata var. homalocarpa (Peterm.) Asch. & Graebn.
  • Carex gracilis Wimm.
  • Carex homalocarpa Peterm.
  • Carex hudsonii A.Benn.
  • Carex hudsonii f. brachystachys (Podp.) Podp.
  • Carex hudsonii f. glabra Junge
  • Carex hudsonii f. humilis (Fr.) Kük.
  • Carex hudsonii f. nigrans (Beck) Kük.
  • Carex hudsonii f. pendula (Lange) Kük.
  • Carex hudsonii f. reticulosa (Peterm.) Kük.
  • Carex hudsonii f. stenocarpa Junge
  • Carex hudsonii var. homalocarpa (Peterm.) Kük.
  • Carex hudsonii var. polystachya (Asch. & Graebn.) Kük.
  • Carex macra Steud.
  • Carex melanochloros Thuill.
  • Carex mixta J.F.Gmel.

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.