Luzula multiflora(Ehrh.) Lej.

common woodrush

WFO wfo-0000777930 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Luzula multiflora, photographed by Mark Richman
fig. a Mark Richman, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-30 / obs. 192648155

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
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
01116275
Filed as
Luzula multiflora (Ehrh.) Lej.
Det. by
R. F. C. Naczi 2009-01-01
Collected
D. E. Atha 2009-06-04
Origin
US
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 118 botanical countries

Regions where Luzula multiflora is native: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Falkland Is., Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Primorye, Sakhalin, Tadzhikistan, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Tuva, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, East Himalaya, Nepal, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Krym, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine, Alaska, Alberta, Aleutian Is., British Columbia, Connecticut, Delaware, Greenland, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Yukon, Argentina Northeast, Costa Rica AlgeriaMoroccoTunisiaFalkland Is.AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIranIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskMagadanMongoliaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeSakhalinTadzhikistanTibetTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanTuvaUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaEast HimalayaNepalWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyKrymNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraineAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaConnecticutGreenlandIllinoisIndianaIowaKentuckyLabradorMaineManitobaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNova ScotiaOhioOntarioOregonPennsylvaniaPrince Edward I.QuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsinYukonArgentina NortheastCosta Rica KoreaFøroyarDelaware
Native distribution of Luzula multiflora, 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
Aleutian Is. ALU
British Columbia BRC
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
Greenland GNL
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kentucky KTY
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Pennsylvania PEN
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS
Yukon YUK
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Iran IRN
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Magadan MAG
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
Tadzhikistan TZK
Tibet CHT
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Tuva TVA
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
East Himalaya EHM ASIA-TROPICAL
Nepal NEP
West Himalaya WHM
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Costa Rica COS
Falkland Is. FAL ANTARCTICA

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is., Great Britain, Aleutian Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are 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.

Flowering 73 in flower of 141 examined

Proportion of examined Luzula multiflora in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 0 0 too few examined
Feb 0 0 too few examined
Mar 6 6 100% 61% to 100%
Apr 17 23 74% 54% to 87%
May 26 49 53% 39% to 66%
Jun 13 30 43% 27% to 61%
Jul 7 21 33% 17% to 55%
Aug 3 9 33% 12% to 65%
Sep 1 3 too few examined
Oct 0 0 too few examined
Nov 0 0 too few examined
Dec 0 0 too few examined

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Luzula multiflora observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 73 of 141 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,005 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -15.3 °C -8.7 °C 3.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.6 °C 22.8 °C 28.2 °C
Annual rainfall 610 mm 920 mm 1,777 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 92 mm 157 mm 339 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 2,005 research-grade observations of Luzula multiflora 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 79 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.

  • Cyperella campestris var. multiflora (Ehrh.) MacMill.
  • Gymnodes multiflora (Ehrh.) Fourr.
  • Juncoides campestris var. multiflora (Ehrh.) E.Sheld.
  • Juncoides erecta Boulger
  • Juncoides intermedia (Thuill.) Rydb.
  • Juncoides multiflora (Ehrh.) Druce
  • Juncus campestris var. multiflorus Ehrh.
  • Juncus campestris var. tenuis Retz.
  • Juncus erectus Pers.
  • Juncus intermedius Thuill.
  • Juncus multiflorus (Ehrh.) Ehrh.
  • Juncus multiflorus (Ehrh.) Ehrh.
  • Juncus multiflorus (Ehrh.) Hoffm.
  • Juncus nemorosus Host
  • Luzula ambigua Soó
  • Luzula badia K.F.Wu
  • Luzula campestris f. erecta Regel
  • Luzula campestris subsp. carpetana Rivas Mart.
  • Luzula campestris subsp. erecta P.Fourn.
  • Luzula campestris subsp. multiflora (Ehrh.) Buchenau
  • Luzula campestris subsp. multiflora (Ehrh.) Schübl. & G.Martens
  • Luzula campestris subsp. multiflora
  • Luzula campestris unranked pallens Asch. & Graebn.
  • Luzula campestris var. acadiensis Fernald

and 55 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.