Carex griseaWahlenb.

inflated narrow-leaf sedge

WFO wfo-0000347237 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex grisea, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205833646
Carex grisea, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. b Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200859579
Carex grisea, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. c Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 133052028
Carex grisea, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. d Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131273436
Carex grisea, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. e Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 77263398
Carex grisea, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. f Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 76199437
Carex grisea, photographed by Mike B
fig. g Mike B, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 76464916
Carex grisea, photographed by Mike B
fig. h Mike B, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 76465017

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 32 botanical countries

Regions where Carex grisea is native: Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin ArkansasConnecticutIllinoisIowaKansasKentuckyMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNebraskaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareDistrict of Columbia
Native distribution of Carex grisea, 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
Arkansas ARK NORTHERN AMERICA
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Illinois ILL
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

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 750 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -14.0 °C -7.9 °C -2.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.3 °C 27.5 °C 31.2 °C
Annual rainfall 859 mm 1,000 mm 1,221 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 116 mm 182 mm 256 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 750 research-grade observations of Carex grisea 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 3 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 amphibola var. turgida Fernald
  • Carex turgida (Fernald) J.W.Moore
  • Manochlaenia grisea (Wahlenb.) Fedde & J.Schust.

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.