Carex pallescensL.

pale sedge

WFO wfo-0000349686 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex pallescens, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205833230
Carex pallescens, photographed by ahabo
fig. b ahabo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204923703
Carex pallescens, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. c Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203205026
Carex pallescens, photographed by John Baur
fig. d John Baur, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202830846
Carex pallescens, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. e Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201289103
Carex pallescens, photographed by Wolfgang Jauch
fig. f Wolfgang Jauch, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200334766
Carex pallescens, photographed by John Baur
fig. g John Baur, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201065844
Carex pallescens, photographed by Emanuele Santarelli
fig. h Emanuele Santarelli, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 144643839

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 63 botanical countries

Regions where Carex pallescens is native: Tunisia, Altay, Iran, Kazakhstan, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Krym, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Rhode I., Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin TunisiaAltayIranKazakhstanLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyKrymNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraineConnecticutMaineMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNewfoundlandNova ScotiaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecTennesseeVermontWisconsin Rhode I.
Native distribution of Carex pallescens, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Connecticut CNT NORTHERN AMERICA
Maine MAI
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Wisconsin WIS
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iran IRN
Kazakhstan KAZ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Tunisia TUN AFRICA

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.

Flowering 55 in flower of 178 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Carex pallescens observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 55 of 178 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,985 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -15.2 °C -9.3 °C -1.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.8 °C 22.8 °C 26.0 °C
Annual rainfall 570 mm 772 mm 1,676 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 89 mm 125 mm 316 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 1,985 research-grade observations of Carex pallescens 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 25 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 chalcodeta V.I.Krecz.
  • Carex leucantha Schur
  • Carex microstoma Franch.
  • Carex pallescens f. alpestris Schur
  • Carex pallescens f. brevibracteata Neuman
  • Carex pallescens f. cylindrica Peterm.
  • Carex pallescens f. elatior Asch. & Graebn.
  • Carex pallescens f. glaberrima K.Koch
  • Carex pallescens f. pygmaea Lackow.
  • Carex pallescens subvar. macrocarpa Briq.
  • Carex pallescens var. alpestris Kohts
  • Carex pallescens var. chalcodeta (V.I.Krecz.) Ö.Nilsson
  • Carex pallescens var. leucantha (Schur) Asch. & Graebn.
  • Carex pallescens var. luxuriosa Kük.
  • Carex pallescens var. macrocarpa (Briq.) Rouy
  • Carex pallescens var. neogaea Fernald
  • Carex pallescens var. orophila Briq.
  • Carex pallescens var. subglabra Beck
  • Carex pallescens var. subsilvatica Kük.
  • Carex pallescens var. undulata (Kunze) J.Carey
  • Carex pallescens var. undulata (Kunze) Andersson
  • Carex pallida Salisb.
  • Carex tymphaea Formánek
  • Carex undulata Kunze

and 1 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.