Carex paniceaL.

carnation sedgegrass-like sedge

WFO wfo-0000349728 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex panicea, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. a Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205229081
Carex panicea, photographed by CorentinD
fig. b CorentinD, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202730510
Carex panicea, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. c Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194381310
Carex panicea, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. d Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 186421235
Carex panicea, photographed by Thomas Gyselinck
fig. e Thomas Gyselinck, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 141440205
Carex panicea, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. f Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 138710924
Carex panicea, photographed by jfgodeau
fig. g jfgodeau, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 164986601
Carex panicea, photographed by Gabriel Mayrhofer
fig. h Gabriel Mayrhofer, CC0 1.0 / obs. 136588026

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 46 botanical countries

Regions where Carex panicea is native: Morocco, Altay, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, North Caucasus, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Greenland MoroccoAltayIranIraqKazakhstanKirgizstanNorth CaucasusTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeUzbekistanWest SiberiaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraineGreenland Føroyar
Native distribution of Carex panicea, 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
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
North Caucasus NCS
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Morocco MOR AFRICA
Greenland GNL NORTHERN AMERICA

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 1,791 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -12.0 °C -3.9 °C 2.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.7 °C 21.4 °C 25.7 °C
Annual rainfall 596 mm 883 mm 1,909 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 98 mm 164 mm 363 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 1,791 research-grade observations of Carex panicea 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 32 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 efflata Laest. ex Trevir.
  • Carex panicea f. binata Lackow. ex Kük.
  • Carex panicea f. conferta N.H.Nilsson ex Neuman
  • Carex panicea f. ferruginea Neuman
  • Carex panicea f. gracilis Lange
  • Carex panicea f. humilis Meinsh.
  • Carex panicea f. latifolia Waisb.
  • Carex panicea f. longipedunculata Asch. & Graebn.
  • Carex panicea f. melanocarpa Waisb.
  • Carex panicea f. microcarpa Sond. ex W.D.J.Koch
  • Carex panicea f. nigra Kuntze
  • Carex panicea f. pallida Blytt
  • Carex panicea f. refracta Peterm.
  • Carex panicea f. robusta Warnst.
  • Carex panicea f. tumidula Laest.
  • Carex panicea subsp. dalmatica Degen & B.Lengyel
  • Carex panicea subsp. pelia (O.Lang) Nyman
  • Carex panicea var. elatior Gaudin
  • Carex panicea var. gynobasica Merino
  • Carex panicea var. hercynica Láng
  • Carex panicea var. intermedia Meinsh.
  • Carex panicea var. microcarpa W.D.J.Koch
  • Carex panicea var. praestabilis Waisb.
  • Carex panicea var. rhizogyna Gaudin

and 8 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.