Carex supinaWilld. ex Wahlenb.

weak arctic sedge

WFO wfo-0000351772 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex supina, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. a Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-05-15 / obs. 150875695

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 616088
Filed as
Carex supina var. supina
Det. by
Strong, Mark T., (BOT), Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History (UNITED STATES)
Collected
J. Wagner 1897-06-20
Origin
HU
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 42 botanical countries

Regions where Carex supina is native: Altay, Amur, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Manchuria, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Nepal, West Himalaya, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Switzerland, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Greenland, Manitoba, Minnesota, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Yukon AltayAmurIranKazakhstanKirgizstanKrasnoyarskManchuriaNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanWest SiberiaYakutiyaNepalWest HimalayaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaGermanyHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSwitzerlandAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaGreenlandManitobaMinnesotaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioSaskatchewanYukon Korea
Native distribution of Carex supina, 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
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
Germany GER
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Switzerland SWI
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Iran IRN
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Manchuria CHM
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
Greenland GNL
Manitoba MAN
Minnesota MIN
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Saskatchewan SAS
Yukon YUK
Nepal NEP ASIA-TROPICAL
West Himalaya WHM

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 316 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -19.7 °C -9.3 °C -2.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.4 °C 25.0 °C 27.1 °C
Annual rainfall 353 mm 545 mm 651 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 46 mm 95 mm 120 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 316 research-grade observations of Carex supina 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 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 aprica Turcz. ex Besser
  • Carex campestris Host
  • Carex conglobata Kit. ex Willd.
  • Carex costata J.Presl & C.Presl
  • Carex liparocarpos f. conglobata (Kit. ex Willd.) Soó
  • Carex nitida var. conglobata Nyman
  • Carex nitida var. supina (Willd. ex Wahlenb.) Fiori
  • Carex obesa subsp. conglobata (Nyman) K.Richt.
  • Carex obesa var. minor Boeckeler
  • Carex obesa var. minor Boott
  • Carex obtusata var. spicata Asch.
  • Carex obtusata var. supina (Willd. ex Wahlenb.) Garcke
  • Carex oligocarpa Hornem. ex Boott
  • Carex spaniocarpa Steud.
  • Carex sphaerocarpa Willd.
  • Carex supina f. elatior Behrendsen
  • Carex supina f. humilior Behrendsen
  • Carex supina f. pallida Bubela
  • Carex supina f. pseudomonostachys Asch.
  • Carex supina subsp. eurasiatica V.I.Krecz.
  • Carex supina subsp. spaniocarpa (Steud.) Hultén
  • Carex turczaninofii Steud. ex Boott
  • Carex verna Schkuhr
  • Edritria supina (Willd. ex Wahlenb.) Raf.

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.