Rhynchospora rugosa(Vahl) Gale

claybank beaksedge

WFO wfo-0000520399 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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.

Rhynchospora rugosa, photographed by akt2
fig. a akt2, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-01-01 / obs. 58932358
Rhynchospora rugosa, photographed by David Anderson
fig. b David Anderson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168604527
Rhynchospora rugosa, photographed by David Anderson
fig. c David Anderson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168604519
Rhynchospora rugosa, photographed by akt2
fig. d akt2, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58932415
Rhynchospora rugosa, photographed by akt2
fig. e akt2, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58932394

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 39 botanical countries

Regions where Rhynchospora rugosa is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Caroline Is., Hawaii, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Chile Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Galápagos, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestHawaiiArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralChile CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoUruguayVenezuela Caroline Is.GalápagosLeeward Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Rhynchospora rugosa, 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
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Chile Central CLC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
French Guiana FRG
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Hawaii HAW

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 39 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 10.0 °C 22.4 °C 23.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.6 °C 29.7 °C 31.4 °C
Annual rainfall 1,137 mm 2,988 mm 3,771 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 165 mm 260 mm 507 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 39 research-grade observations of Rhynchospora rugosa 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 15 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.

  • Dichromena glauca J.F.Macbr.
  • Rhynchospora brownii subsp. americana Guagl.
  • Rhynchospora durandiana Boeckeler
  • Rhynchospora ferruginea Roem. & Schult.
  • Rhynchospora glauca Vahl
  • Rhynchospora glauca var. altior Kük. ex O.C.Schmidt
  • Rhynchospora glauca var. strobilacea Nees
  • Rhynchospora glauca var. ustilaginosa Nees
  • Rhynchospora laevigata Steud.
  • Rhynchospora lavarum Gaudich.
  • Rhynchospora pauloensis Boeckeler
  • Rhynchospora ponapensis Hosok.
  • Rhynchospora pungens Liebm.
  • Rhynchospora vicozensis Schult.
  • Schoenus rugosus Vahl

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.