Carex loliaceaL.

Ryegrass sedgeryegrass sedge

WFO wfo-0000348426 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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 loliacea, photographed by nina_nesterova
fig. a nina_nesterova, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-07-02 / obs. 141615072
Carex loliacea, photographed by Allan Harris
fig. b Allan Harris, CC0 1.0 / obs. 32826154
Carex loliacea, photographed by Allan Harris
fig. c Allan Harris, CC0 1.0 / obs. 32826167
Carex loliacea, photographed by Allan Harris
fig. d Allan Harris, CC0 1.0 / obs. 32826181
Carex loliacea, photographed by nina_nesterova
fig. e nina_nesterova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 141615084

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
04325867
Filed as
Carex loliacea L.
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. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. 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 herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 37 botanical countries

Regions where Carex loliacea is native: Altay, Amur, Inner Mongolia, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, Primorye, Sakhalin, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Baltic States, Belarus, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Finland, Germany, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Yukon AltayAmurInner MongoliaJapanKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskManchuriaMongoliaPrimoryeSakhalinWest SiberiaYakutiyaBaltic StatesBelarusCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaFinlandGermanyNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayPolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSwedenUkraineAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaManitobaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioSaskatchewanYukon Korea
Native distribution of Carex loliacea, 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
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Inner Mongolia CHI
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Baltic States BLT EUROPE
Belarus BLR
Central European Russia RUC
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
Germany GER
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Sweden SWE
Ukraine UKR
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
Manitoba MAN
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Saskatchewan SAS
Yukon YUK

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 117 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -31.4 °C -16.8 °C -9.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 16.4 °C 22.2 °C 24.2 °C
Annual rainfall 427 mm 664 mm 1,000 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 23 mm 99 mm 165 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 117 research-grade observations of Carex loliacea 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 7 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 loliacea f. subtenella Norm.
  • Carex quaternaria Spreng.
  • Carex sibirica Willd. ex Kunth
  • Carex tenuiflora Hartm. ex Kunth
  • Leptovignea loliacea (L.) Fedde & J.Schust.
  • Neskiza loliacea (L.) Raf.
  • Vignea loliacea (L.) Rchb.

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.