Carex muricataL.

rough sedge

WFO wfo-0000349075 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex muricata, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. a Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205235794

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
05150397
Filed as
Carex muricata L.
Det. by
W. W. Thomas 2024-01-01
Collected
W. W. Thomas 2024-09-15
Origin
FO
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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Carex muricata is native: Altay, East Aegean Is., Iran, Krasnoyarsk, North Caucasus, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Krym, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AltayEast Aegean Is.IranKrasnoyarskNorth CaucasusTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaPakistanWest HimalayaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceItalyKrymNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Carex muricata, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Iran IRN
Krasnoyarsk KRA
North Caucasus NCS
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL
West Himalaya WHM

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 373 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -15.3 °C -5.9 °C -0.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.4 °C 23.1 °C 25.7 °C
Annual rainfall 525 mm 699 mm 1,305 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 83 mm 119 mm 264 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 373 research-grade observations of Carex muricata 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 26 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 astracanica Willd. ex Kunth
  • Carex cesanensis (Molina Gonz., Acedo & Llamas) Landolt
  • Carex divulsa Gaudin
  • Carex divulsa subsp. orsiniana (Ten.) K.Richt.
  • Carex intermedia Retz.
  • Carex muricata subsp. lamprocarpa (Wallr.) Čelak.
  • Carex muricata subsp. orsiniana (Ten.) Nyman
  • Carex muricata var. alpina Gaudin
  • Carex muricata var. densa Wallr.
  • Carex muricata var. gracilis Gray
  • Carex muricata var. lamprocarpa Wallr.
  • Carex muricata var. muricata
  • Carex orsiniana Ten.
  • Carex pairae subsp. borealis Hyl.
  • Carex pairae var. javanica Nelmes
  • Carex serotina Ten.
  • Carex stellulata M.Bieb.
  • Carex tenuissima Schur
  • Carex tergestina Hoppe ex Boott
  • Carex viridis Spenn.
  • Carex vulpina Hohen.
  • Caricina muricata (L.) St.-Lag.
  • Vignea altissima Schur
  • Vignea muricata (L.) Rchb.

and 2 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.