Carex tenuifloraWahlenb.

Sparse-flowered sedgesparse-flowered sedgesparseflower sedge

WFO wfo-0000351893 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carex tenuiflora, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. a Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-02 / obs. 148212092
Carex tenuiflora, photographed by Laura Holloway
fig. b Laura Holloway, CC0 1.0 / obs. 174055377
Carex tenuiflora, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. c Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 139840932
Carex tenuiflora, photographed by Allan Harris
fig. d Allan Harris, CC0 1.0 / obs. 59724873
Carex tenuiflora, photographed by lallen
fig. e lallen, CC0 1.0 / obs. 181344952
Carex tenuiflora, photographed by Norma Malinowski
fig. f Norma Malinowski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 137279286
Carex tenuiflora, photographed by Norma Malinowski
fig. g Norma Malinowski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 45627247
Carex tenuiflora, photographed by Norma Malinowski
fig. h Norma Malinowski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43863355

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
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Accession
K000960653
Filed as
Carex tenuiflora Wahlenb.
Det. by
Clarke, C.B.
Collected
Faurie, U.J. 1893-06-18
Origin
JP
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

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 48 botanical countries

Regions where Carex tenuiflora is native: Altay, Amur, Inner Mongolia, Japan, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Manchuria, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Primorye, Sakhalin, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Finland, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, South European Russia, Sweden, Alaska, Alberta, Colorado, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Brunswick, New York, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ohio, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Saskatchewan, Vermont, Wisconsin, Yukon AltayAmurInner MongoliaJapanKamchatkaKhabarovskKrasnoyarskManchuriaMongoliaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeSakhalinWest SiberiaYakutiyaBaltic StatesCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaFinlandNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwaySouth European RussiaSwedenAlaskaAlbertaColoradoLabradorMaineManitobaMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNew BrunswickNew YorkNewfoundlandNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOhioOntarioPrince Edward I.QuébecSaskatchewanVermontWisconsinYukon Korea
Native distribution of Carex tenuiflora, 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
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Colorado COL
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
New Brunswick NBR
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
Vermont VER
Wisconsin WIS
Yukon YUK
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Inner Mongolia CHI
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Baltic States BLT EUROPE
Central European Russia RUC
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
South European Russia RUS
Sweden SWE

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is.. 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 179 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -30.1 °C -16.3 °C -10.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.6 °C 22.1 °C 25.4 °C
Annual rainfall 475 mm 778 mm 1,188 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 51 mm 106 mm 240 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 179 research-grade observations of Carex tenuiflora 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 5 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 arrhyncha Franch.
  • Carex leucolepis Turcz. ex Steud.
  • Carex tenuiflora var. arrhyncha (Franch.) Kük.
  • Carex tenuiflora var. setacea Kük.
  • Vignea tenuiflora (Wahlenb.) Soják

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.