Carex piluliferaL.

pill sedge

WFO wfo-0000350055 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex pilulifera, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. a Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-03 / obs. 203199810
Carex pilulifera, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. b Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 203199210
Carex pilulifera, photographed by Piermario Maculan
fig. c Piermario Maculan, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202712226
Carex pilulifera, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. d Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193867750
Carex pilulifera, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. e Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 138717189
Carex pilulifera, photographed by James Clow
fig. f James Clow, CC0 1.0 / obs. 136715285
Carex pilulifera, photographed by T. Pedro Hafermann
fig. g T. Pedro Hafermann, CC0 1.0 / obs. 132342035
Carex pilulifera, photographed by James Clow
fig. h James Clow, CC0 1.0 / obs. 130436285

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 31 botanical countries

Regions where Carex pilulifera is native: Azores, Madeira, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine AustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkFinlandFranceGermanyHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine AzoresMadeiraFøroyar
Native distribution of Carex pilulifera, 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
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
Finland FIN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
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
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Azores AZO AFRICA
Madeira MDR

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 676 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -10.4 °C -2.5 °C 3.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 16.3 °C 21.7 °C 24.7 °C
Annual rainfall 635 mm 914 mm 2,158 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 104 mm 167 mm 391 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 676 research-grade observations of Carex pilulifera 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 30 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.

  • Bitteria pilulifera (L.) Fedde & J.Schust.
  • Carex aederi Desv.
  • Carex alba Bastard
  • Carex azorica J.Gay
  • Carex bastardiana DC.
  • Carex decumbens Ehrh.
  • Carex pilulifera f. fallax Vatke ex Asch. & Graebn.
  • Carex pilulifera f. fuscidula Waisb.
  • Carex pilulifera f. golenzii Asch. & Graebn.
  • Carex pilulifera f. laxa Waisb.
  • Carex pilulifera f. longibracteata Lange
  • Carex pilulifera f. major Wirtg. ex Herrenkohl
  • Carex pilulifera f. pallida Peterm.
  • Carex pilulifera f. pedunculata Waisb.
  • Carex pilulifera f. refracta Waisb.
  • Carex pilulifera var. azorica (J.Gay) Christ
  • Carex pilulifera var. bastardiana (DC.) Nyman
  • Carex pilulifera var. bertolonii Pi.Savi ex Kük.
  • Carex pilulifera var. bertolonii Pi.Savi
  • Carex pilulifera var. digyna Boeckeler
  • Carex pilulifera var. leesii Ridl.
  • Carex pilulifera var. longibracteata Lange
  • Carex pilulifera var. longibracteata Lange
  • Carex pilulifera var. mucronata Peterm.

and 6 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.