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An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Carex trifida; photograph (c) Liadan Dickie, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Liadan Dickie, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-23

Carex trifida Cav.

Sword Grass

Cyperaceae · Antipodean Is., Chatham Is. +4

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Carex trifida, photograph (c) Liadan Dickie, some rights reserved (CC BY)Carex trifida, photograph (c) Liadan Dickie, some rights reserved (CC BY)Carex trifida, photograph (c) Liadan Dickie, some rights reserved (CC BY)Carex trifida, photograph (c) Liadan Dickie, some rights reserved (CC BY)Carex trifida, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCarex trifida, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 70 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
0.8°C
Record low -1.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
16°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,017mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
7–39DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 9 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Carex trifida, the mutton-bird sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cyperaceae, native to Macquarie Island of Australia, the South Island, the Antipodes Islands, and the Chatham Islands of New Zealand, southern Chile, and the Falkland Islands. There are a number of cultivars, including 'Rekohu Sunrise', 'Glauca', and 'Chatham Blue'.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (801 mm of 1,036 mm) takes 9 months, December to January, March to August and October. Mean temperature moves 7.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: September to February, April and June to July.

Rain

1,036 mm in the median year at the habitat, 801 mm of it December to January, March to August and October. Wettest month June at 100 mm, driest month November at 77 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 701 mm to 1,596 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,017 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,036 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: 7 to 39 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 4, 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 0.8 °C, the absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 34 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 24.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 1.6 °C to 8.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 16.3 °C in January and February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.8 °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: 61 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 -65 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 trifida through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 16 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 4.3 °C; 1,036 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.-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°30°frost24.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-1.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 7–39RH 61–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 102 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 °C16 / 10–1916 / 11–1915 / 10–1713 / 9–1411 / 8–139 / 6–119 / 5–1010 / 6–1111 / 6–1212 / 7–1414 / 8–1515 / 9–17
Night °C11 / 8–1411 / 8–1410 / 8–148 / 6–127 / 4–115 / 2–94 / 2–95 / 2–96 / 3–97 / 4–108 / 6–1110 / 7–12
Rain mm85 / 52–15079 / 54–11591 / 63–13786 / 59–13795 / 71–161100 / 66–14487 / 68–13885 / 58–12279 / 45–13283 / 54–14077 / 50–12489 / 56–129
DLI38 / 35–4432 / 28–3624 / 19–2715 / 11–199 / 6–127 / 4–98 / 5–1113 / 10–1621 / 17–2430 / 27–3337 / 34–4239 / 38–44
RH %62 / 60–6763 / 61–6762 / 60–6762 / 60–6662 / 60–6662 / 60–6662 / 60–6562 / 60–6562 / 60–6561 / 60–6561 / 60–6562 / 60–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 102 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (180 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 2731:6991 (-46.575, 169.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.6 °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 102 distinct grid cells holding 180 of the 197 in-range records (5 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2731:6991 (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 -46.50_169.375, lapse-corrected -65 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 67 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.
NativeAntipodean Is., Chatham Is., New Zealand South, Chile South, Falkland Is., Macquarie Is. · 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-46.57, 169.476 · in the densest population, 103 records (32% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 321 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 180 of them in the land cells it reads, of 197 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 220 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 99 km away. 39 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 124 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 of the 321 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 trifida, photograph 1did not loadCarex trifida, photograph 2did not loadCarex trifida, photograph 3did not loadCarex trifida, photograph 4did not loadCarex trifida, photograph 5did not loadCarex trifida, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Liadan Dickie, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

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

Rumex neglectus Rumex neglectus Shore Dock Photo: CC BY, Irisa HudsonCrassula moschata Crassula moschata Native stonecrop Photo: CC BY, Julia PalmerEpilobium komarovianum Epilobium komarovianum Bronzy Willowherb Photo: CC BY, Leon PerrieCelmisia mackaui Celmisia mackaui Akaroa Daisy Photo: CC BY, Liadan DickieMyosotis rakiura Myosotis rakiura Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Irisa HudsonGentianella saxosa Gentianella saxosa Gentianaceae Photo: CC BY, Irisa Hudson

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 incrassata; Carex rekohu. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cyperaceae
Described by
Cav.
Native to
Antipodean Is., Chatham Is., New Zealand South +3
Wild records
321 in range · 220 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; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium; 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 -46.50_169.375, lapse-corrected -65 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 20 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…