Carex mediaR.Br.

intermediate sedge

WFO wfo-0000348759 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex media, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. a Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-06-27 / obs. 142510513
Carex media, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. b Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 20161635
Carex media, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. c Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 147136779
Carex media, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. d Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 147132776
Carex media, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. e Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 147147295
Carex media, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. f Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145258837
Carex media, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. g Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 139842950
Carex media, photographed by Rob Foster
fig. h Rob Foster, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 46461577

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
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 1532402
Filed as
Carex media R.Br.
Det. by
Murray, D. F.
Collected
Y. Mexia 1928-08-16
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Carex media is native: Altay, Inner Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Primorye, West Siberia, Yakutiya, East European Russia, Finland, North European Russia, Norway, Sweden, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Iowa, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Oregon, Québec, Saskatchewan, Washington, Wisconsin, Yukon AltayInner MongoliaKazakhstanKirgizstanKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaPrimoryeWest SiberiaYakutiyaEast European RussiaFinlandNorth European RussiaNorwaySwedenAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaIowaLabradorMaineManitobaMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioOregonQuébecSaskatchewanWashingtonWisconsinYukon Korea
Native distribution of Carex media, 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
British Columbia BRC
Iowa IOW
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Yukon YUK
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Inner Mongolia CHI
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Primorye PRM
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
East European Russia RUE EUROPE
Finland FIN
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
Sweden SWE

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 210 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -31.7 °C -21.1 °C -11.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 14.9 °C 20.6 °C 24.4 °C
Annual rainfall 369 mm 692 mm 1,144 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 18 mm 79 mm 183 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 210 research-grade observations of Carex media 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 10 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 alpina f. inferalpina (Wahlenb.) Kük.
  • Carex alpina subsp. inferalpina (Wahlenb.) K.Richt.
  • Carex alpina var. inferalpina Wahlenb.
  • Carex angarae Steud.
  • Carex angarae subsp. brachylepis Kalela
  • Carex brachylepis Turcz. ex Besser
  • Carex brachylepis Turcz. ex Steud.
  • Carex norvegica subsp. inferalpina (Wahlenb.) Hultén
  • Carex norvegica var. inferalpina (Wahlenb.) B.Boivin
  • Carex vahlii var. inferalpina (Wahlenb.) Fernald

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.