Scleria gaertneriRaddi

cortadora blanca

WFO wfo-0000916016 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Scleria gaertneri, photographed by Augustin Soulard
fig. a Augustin Soulard, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-09 / obs. 193809145

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
1747910
Filed as
Scleria gaertneri Raddi
Det. by
A. C. Araújo 2011-01-01
Collected
A. C. Araújo 2010-03-12
Origin
BR
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 54 botanical countries

Regions where Scleria gaertneri is native: Benin, Burkina, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Nigeria, Réunion, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Galápagos, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. BeninBurkinaChadCongoDR CongoGabonGhanaGuineaGulf of Guinea Is.LiberiaMadagascarMaliNigeriaSenegalSierra LeoneTanzaniaTogoMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela MauritiusRéunionSeychellesGalápagosLeeward Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Scleria gaertneri, 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
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Benin BEN AFRICA
Burkina BKN
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Liberia LBR
Madagascar MDG
Mali MLI
Mauritius MAU
Nigeria NGA
Réunion REU
Senegal SEN
Seychelles SEY
Sierra Leone SIE
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

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 106 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 14.1 °C 20.4 °C 23.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.6 °C 29.4 °C 33.4 °C
Annual rainfall 1,468 mm 3,125 mm 4,370 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 33 mm 258 mm 609 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 106 research-grade observations of Scleria gaertneri 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 30 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 vahlii A.Dietr.
  • Schizolepis sieberi (Nees ex Kunth) Nees
  • Schoenus latifolius Vahl
  • Scleria affinis C.Presl ex Steud.
  • Scleria asperata C.Presl
  • Scleria boliviana Palla
  • Scleria communis Kunth
  • Scleria congolensis De Wild.
  • Scleria conspersa Sellow ex Nees
  • Scleria flagellata Sw. ex Boeckeler
  • Scleria latifolia Sieber ex C.Presl
  • Scleria latifolia (Vahl) C.Presl
  • Scleria longifolia Boeckeler
  • Scleria margaritifera Willd.
  • Scleria melaleuca Rchb. ex Schltdl. & Cham.
  • Scleria ottonis Boeckeler
  • Scleria pittieri Boeckeler
  • Scleria pratensis Lindl. ex Nees
  • Scleria pratensis var. melanocarpa Boeck.
  • Scleria pratensis var. melanocarpa Nees
  • Scleria pterota C.Presl
  • Scleria pterota C.Presl ex C.B.Clarke
  • Scleria pterota var. melaleuca (Rchb.) Standl.
  • Scleria pterota var. melaleuca (Rchb. ex Schltdl. & Cham.) Uittien

and 6 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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol SCPT. public domain. 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.