Carex normalisMack.

Greater straw sedgeSpreading oval sedgegreater straw sedge

WFO wfo-0000349330 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex normalis, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-26 / obs. 200858699
Carex normalis, photographed by Owen Strickland
fig. b Owen Strickland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 141363720
Carex normalis, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. c Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 135854824
Carex normalis, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. d Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 41206626
Carex normalis, photographed by Erin Snyder
fig. e Erin Snyder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200428074
Carex normalis, photographed by Sarah Johnson
fig. f Sarah Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 8498592
Carex normalis, photographed by aarongunnar
fig. g aarongunnar, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 11435689
Carex normalis, photographed by caseyzill
fig. h caseyzill, CC0 1.0 / obs. 77729919

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 33 botanical countries

Regions where Carex normalis is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Rhode I., South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasConnecticutGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMissouriNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Carex normalis, 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
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
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 220 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -13.2 °C -7.7 °C -1.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.6 °C 27.5 °C 31.4 °C
Annual rainfall 863 mm 1,049 mm 1,585 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 112 mm 202 mm 333 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 220 research-grade observations of Carex normalis 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 9 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 cristata var. mirabilis (Tuck.) A.Gray
  • Carex festucacea var. mirabilis (Dewey) J.Carey
  • Carex mirabilis Dewey
  • Carex mirabilis var. perlonga Fernald
  • Carex normalis f. normalis
  • Carex normalis f. perlonga (Fernald) Fernald
  • Carex normalis var. perlonga (Fernald) Burnham
  • Carex straminea f. perlonga Kük.
  • Carex straminea var. mirabilis Tuck.

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.