Carex simpliciusculaWahlenb.

simple bog sedge

WFO wfo-0000351326 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Carex simpliciuscula, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. a Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / 2016-08-19 / obs. 80289553
Carex simpliciuscula, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. b Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 80289388
Carex simpliciuscula, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. c Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148760674
Carex simpliciuscula, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. d Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148759916
Carex simpliciuscula, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. e Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148760659
Carex simpliciuscula, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. f Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148759939
Carex simpliciuscula, photographed by Santiago Martín-Bravo
fig. g Santiago Martín-Bravo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149500615
Carex simpliciuscula, photographed by Santiago Martín-Bravo
fig. h Santiago Martín-Bravo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149500647

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 simpliciuscula is native: Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Mongolia, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Austria, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, North European Russia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Colorado, Greenland, Idaho, Labrador, Manitoba, New Mexico, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Oregon, Québec, Utah, Wyoming, Yukon AltayBuryatiyaChitaKamchatkaKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanMongoliaTibetTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaYakutiyaAustriaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyItalyNorth European RussiaNorwayPolandRomaniaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaColoradoGreenlandIdahoLabradorManitobaNew MexicoNewfoundlandNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioOregonQuébecUtahWyomingYukon
Native distribution of Carex simpliciuscula, 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
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Greenland GNL
Idaho IDA
Labrador LAB
Manitoba MAN
New Mexico NWM
Newfoundland NFL
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Québec QUE
Utah UTA
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK
Austria AUT EUROPE
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Italy ITA
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
Chita CTA
Kamchatka KAM
Khabarovsk KHA
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Mongolia MON
Tibet CHT
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK

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 64 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -28.2 °C -17.4 °C -9.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 11.3 °C 15.6 °C 21.2 °C
Annual rainfall 293 mm 835 mm 1,780 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 32 mm 137 mm 348 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 64 research-grade observations of Carex simpliciuscula 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 17 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 bipartita All.
  • Carex hybrida Schkuhr ex Kunth
  • Carex kobresia Missbach & E.H.L.Krause
  • Carex mirabilis Host
  • Carex subholarctica (T.V.Egorova) Melnikov
  • Elyna bellardii Hartm.
  • Elyna caricina Mert. & W.D.J.Koch
  • Kobresia bipartita (All.) Dalla Torre
  • Kobresia caricina Willd.
  • Kobresia filifolia subsp. subfilifolia T.V.Egorova, Jurtzev & V.V.Petrovsky
  • Kobresia simpliciuscula (Wahlenb.) Mack.
  • Kobresia simpliciuscula subsp. subfilifolia (T.V.Egorova, Jurtzev & V.V.Petrovsky) T.V.Egorova
  • Kobresia simpliciuscula subsp. subholarctica T.V.Egorova
  • Kobresia simpliciuscula var. americana Duman
  • Kobresia simpliciuscula var. subholarctica (T.V.Egorova) A.E.Kozhevn.
  • Kobresia subholarctica (T.V.Egorova) T.V.Egorova
  • Schoenus monoicus Sm.

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol KOSI2. public domain. 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.