Carex squarrosaL.

squarrose sedge

WFO wfo-0000351488 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex squarrosa, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205833557
Carex squarrosa, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. b Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205835698
Carex squarrosa, photographed by Mark Richman
fig. c Mark Richman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198776422
Carex squarrosa, photographed by Mike B
fig. d Mike B, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 160884250
Carex squarrosa, photographed by Mike B
fig. e Mike B, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 158428121
Carex squarrosa, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. f Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156994047
Carex squarrosa, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. g Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150368320
Carex squarrosa, photographed by John Abrams
fig. h John Abrams, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131334679

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 30 botanical countries

Regions where Carex squarrosa is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia AlabamaArkansasConnecticutGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNebraskaNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeVirginiaWest Virginia DelawareDistrict of Columbia
Native distribution of Carex squarrosa, 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
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA

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 1,393 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -7.9 °C -4.9 °C 0.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.8 °C 28.9 °C 31.7 °C
Annual rainfall 964 mm 1,121 mm 1,387 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 156 mm 222 mm 291 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 1,393 research-grade observations of Carex squarrosa 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 4 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 squarrosa f. robusta Peck
  • Carex squarrosa var. typhinoides (Schwein.) Dewey
  • Carex typhinoides Schwein.
  • Vignea squarrosa (L.) Rchb.

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.