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Carex brunnea; photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-05

Carex brunnea Thunb.

Greater brown sedge

Cyperaceae · Eritrea, Ethiopia +19

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Carex brunnea, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Carex brunnea, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Carex brunnea, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Carex brunnea, photograph (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY)Carex brunnea, photograph (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY)Carex brunnea, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 102 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.1°C
Record low 2.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jan and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,174mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to November (November to May at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Carex brunnea, the greater brown sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family. It is native to China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Taiwan, Vietnam, parts of east Africa, as well as eastern Australia and Lord Howe Island. This plant is often seen in disturbed, sunny areas in and near rainforest. This is one of many plants described by Robert Brown and was published in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen (1810). More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Carex brunnea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (844 mm of 1,190 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.4 °C against a yearly mean of 17.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to November.

Rain

1,190 mm in the median year at the habitat, 844 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 157 mm, driest month September at 56 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 939 mm to 1,953 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,174 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,190 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.1 °C, the absolute minimum 2.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 3.2 °C to 12.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.2 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -54 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Carex brunnea through the yearWarmest months January and December, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 7.0 °C; 1,190 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°37.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER2.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 18–41RH 56–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 217 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 24–2825 / 23–2724 / 21–2621 / 19–2419 / 16–2116 / 13–1916 / 12–1917 / 14–2020 / 17–2322 / 19–2524 / 21–2626 / 23–28
Night °C18 / 15–2118 / 15–2116 / 13–2014 / 10–1811 / 7–168 / 5–137 / 3–128 / 4–1210 / 6–1413 / 9–1615 / 11–1817 / 13–20
Rain mm130 / 86–369157 / 123–427122 / 91–281111 / 75–18893 / 66–15687 / 50–12261 / 41–9059 / 39–8156 / 38–7683 / 67–104109 / 91–142122 / 87–205
DLI40 / 39–4335 / 34–3931 / 30–3525 / 24–3020 / 18–2518 / 16–2319 / 17–2426 / 24–2933 / 31–3737 / 37–4240 / 39–4441 / 40–44
RH %62 / 59–6763 / 61–6963 / 61–6762 / 60–6661 / 59–6560 / 58–6458 / 56–6356 / 55–6256 / 54–6157 / 55–6360 / 58–6561 / 58–66

Records on both sides of the equator: the 104 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 217 cells that remain: the 217 at least 10° south.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 217 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (348 records in those cells; 5 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2447:6638 (-32.375, 151.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 217 distinct grid cells holding 348 of the 491 in-range records (5 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (104 cells poleward of 10° north, 217 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2447:6638 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -32.50_151.875, lapse-corrected -54 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 72 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeEritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Yemen, China South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland · introduced: Great Britain, Ogasawara-shoto, Vanuatu, Massachusetts · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-32.482, 151.459 · in the densest population, 337 records (30% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1106 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 348 of them in the land cells it reads, of 491 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 813 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 97 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 615 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1106 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Carex brunnea, photograph 1did not loadCarex brunnea, photograph 2did not loadCarex brunnea, photograph 3did not loadCarex brunnea, photograph 4did not loadCarex brunnea, photograph 5did not loadCarex brunnea, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Apocissus antarctica Apocissus antarctica Vitaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Arria BelliDendrobium teretifolium Dendrobium teretifolium Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrew AllenGymnostachys anceps Gymnostachys anceps Caterpillar-flower Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyEmmenosperma alphitonioides Emmenosperma alphitonioides Bonewood Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioDavallia pyxidata Davallia pyxidata Davalliaceae Photo: CC BY, Ben SharpAcacia irrorata Acacia irrorata Green wattle Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Carex 301 in the reference

Carex acuta Carex acuta Slender Tufted-sedge Photo: CC BY, Михаил ЯзыковCarex acutiformis Carex acutiformis Lesser pond-sedge Photo: CC BY, Sascha NunheimCarex adelostoma Carex adelostoma Circumpolar sedge Photo: CC0, author not statedCarex alba Carex alba Cyperaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedCarex albicans Carex albicans White-tinged sedge Photo: CC BY, Ryan SorrellsCarex albula Carex albula Blonde Sedge Photo: CC BY, John BarklaCarex albursina Carex albursina White bear sedge Photo: CC BY, sofi vCarex alopecoidea Carex alopecoidea Foxtail sedge Photo: CC0, author not statedCarex amphibola Carex amphibola Amphibious sedge Photo: CC BY, Nathan AaronCarex amplifolia Carex amplifolia Big-leaved sedge Photo: CC0, author not statedCarex annectens Carex annectens Yellow-fruited sedge Photo: CC0, author not statedCarex appalachica Carex appalachica Appalachian sedge Photo: CC BY, Jaime McGuigan all 302 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Carex brunnea subsp. abscondita; Carex brunnea subsp. arabica; Carex brunnea subsp. hattoriana; Carex brunnea subsp. meyenii; Carex brunnea subsp. minor and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cyperaceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia +18
Wild records
1106 in range · 813 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 31 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (15 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 13 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -32.50_151.875, lapse-corrected -54 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 87 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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