BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary
Carex pauciflora
few-flowered sedge
| Scientific Name: | Carex pauciflora Lightf. | ||||||||||
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| English Name: | few-flowered sedge | ||||||||||
| Classification / Taxonomy | |||||||||||
| Scientific Name - Concept Reference: | Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR. | ||||||||||
| Classification Level: | Species | ||||||||||
| Species Group: | Vascular Plant | ||||||||||
| Species Code: | CAREPAU | ||||||||||
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| Conservation Status / Legal Designation | |||||||||||
| Global Status: | G5 (Aug 2025) | ||||||||||
| Provincial Status: | S5 (Apr 2019) | ||||||||||
| BC List: | Yellow | ||||||||||
| Provincial FRPA list: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Wildlife Act: | |||||||||||
| COSEWIC Status: | |||||||||||
| SARA Schedule: | |||||||||||
| General Status Canada: | 4 - Secure (2010) | ||||||||||
| Ecology & Life History | |||||||||||
| General Description: | A small sedge with obtusely triangular culms up to 2.5 dm tall; narrow, involute, ascending leaves; and a solitary gynandrous flowering spike. | ||||||||||
| Technical Description: | Rhizome: very slender, elongate. Culms: few together or solitary, 0.2-2.5 dm tall, erect, slender, stiff, exceeding the leaves, very obtusely triangular. Leaves: few (2 or 3 with well developed blades) 4-15 cm long, 1.0-1.5 mm wide, involute, erect, ascending, light green. Bracts: none. Spike: solitary, staminate above, with 1-6 perigynia below, conspicuously jointed to the rachis. Flowers: monosporangiate. Scales: the staminate; few, appressed into a terminal cone, the pistillate; early deciduous, ovate, light brown, 4.0-6.0 mm long. Perigynia: subulate or linear-lanceolate 6.0-7.0 mm long and 1.0-1.5 mm wide, scarcely inflated, glabrous, membranaceous. Beak: hyaline tipped. Style: protruding, persistant. Stigmas: 3, short, slender. Achene: linear-oblong, about 2.0 mm long and 0.75 mm wide, trigonous, occupying the lower third of the perigynium, yellowish brown. | ||||||||||
| Diagnostic Characteristics: | Spike borne singly on culm, bisexual, pistillate basally, staminate at the summit. Achenes trigonous, stigmas 3. Perigynia elliptic or oblong to globose, ascending. n=23, 38. Periginia propelled 1-2 feet by compression of a spongy base and sudden loosening of the attachment at the absicission layer. |
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| Similar Species: | |||||||||||
| Habitats: (Type / Subtype / Dependence) |
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| Global Habitat Comments: | Carex pauciflora grows in "sphagnum bogs and acidic peat (damp mossy tundra, dryish heaths, alpine quagmires, [and] moist forests), usually on open mats, [but] also in partial shade of conifers" (FNA 2002). | ||||||||||
| Provincial Phenology: (1st half of month/ 2nd half of month) |
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| Elevation (m) (min / max): | Provincial: | ||||||||||
| Known Pests: | |||||||||||
| Pollen Vector: |
ABIOTIC
Wind |
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| Pollinator: | |||||||||||
| Dispersal: |
ABIOTIC
BIOTIC Birds Self-dispersing |
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| Provincial Inventory | |||||||||||
| Inventory Priority: | |||||||||||
| Ownership of occurrences (Known locations): | |||||||||||
| Inventory Need: | |||||||||||
| Economic Attributes | |||||||||||
| Distribution | |||||||||||
| Endemic: | N | ||||||||||
| Global Range Comment: | Carex pauciflora has a circumboreal distribution, occurring North America from Alaska, United States, and throughout Canada (except Nunavut), south to Washington, Minnesota east to New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia; it also occurs in northern Eurasia (FNA 2002). Range extent was estimated to be over 50 million square kilometers using herbarium specimens, photo-based observations, and NatureServe Network occurrence data documented between 1994 and 2025 (GBIF 2025, iNaturalist 2025, NatureServe 2025, RARECAT 2025, SEINet 2025). | ||||||||||
| Disjunct, more common elsewhere: | |||||||||||
| Peripheral, major distribution elsewhere: | |||||||||||
| Authors / Contributors | |||||||||||
| Global Information Author: | ISAAC, J. (1992), rev. Soteropoulos (2025) | ||||||||||
| Last Updated: | Aug 12, 2025 | ||||||||||
| Provincial Information Author: | |||||||||||
| Last Updated: | |||||||||||
| Last Literature Search: | |||||||||||
| References and Related Literature | |||||||||||
Flora of North America Editorial Committee (FNA). 2002b. Flora of North America north of Mexico. Vol. 23. Magnoliophyta: Commelinidae (in part): Cyperaceae. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. xxiv + 608 pp. |
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Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.
Suggested Citation:
B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 2025. Species Summary: Carex pauciflora. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 16, 2026).