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Eleocharis quinqueflora; photograph (c) Dustin Snider, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Dustin Snider, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-12

Eleocharis quinqueflora (Hartmann) O.Schwarz

Few-flowered spike-rush; Few-flower spikerush; Fewflowered spikesedge

Cyperaceae · Denmark, Finland +104

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Eleocharis quinqueflora, photograph (c) Dustin Snider, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eleocharis quinqueflora, photograph (c) Dustin Snider, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eleocharis quinqueflora, photograph (c) Ljaž, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eleocharis quinqueflora, photograph (c) Ljaž, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eleocharis quinqueflora, photograph (c) Andrejus Gaidamavičius, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eleocharis quinqueflora, photograph (c) Andrejus Gaidamavičius, some rights reserved (CC BY) 78 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-9.4°C
Record low -17.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
17°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,275mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
2–34DLI
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 8 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

Eleocharis quinqueflora is a species of spikesedge known by the common names fewflower spikerush and few-flowered spike-rush. It is widespread across Europe, North Africa, northern Asia (Siberia, China, Kazakhstan, Himalayas, etc.), and North America (Canada, Greenland, northern and western US). There are also isolated populations in Argentina and Chile.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Eleocharis quinqueflora", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (885 mm of 1,215 mm) takes 8 months, July to January and March. Mean temperature moves 12.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to July and September.

Rain

1,215 mm in the median year at the habitat, 885 mm of it July to January and March. Wettest month October at 132 mm, driest month April at 77 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 652 mm to 2,324 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,275 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,215 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 2 to 34 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 1, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -9.4 °C, the absolute minimum -17.3 °C, 3,490 frost nights in 44 years, 79.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -1.4 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range -12.0 °C to 3.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 16.9 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.4 °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: 62 to 67% 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 -14 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Eleocharis quinqueflora through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 17 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low -1.4 °C; 1,215 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, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost25.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-17.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 2–34RH 62–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1449 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 °C3 / -6–74 / -4–76 / -1–99 / 3–1212 / 8–1615 / 12–1917 / 14–2217 / 14–2114 / 11–1811 / 6–147 / -1–104 / -5–7
Night °C-1 / -13–4-1 / -12–40 / -9–42 / -5–66 / 0–99 / 4–1211 / 7–1511 / 7–159 / 3–126 / -2–92 / -8–7-1 / -12–5
Rain mm111 / 48–27387 / 38–20096 / 40–20777 / 35–14280 / 46–14686 / 58–14593 / 61–162101 / 66–180111 / 58–215132 / 62–257124 / 60–260117 / 55–244
DLI3 / 2–118 / 6–1815 / 13–2725 / 22–3433 / 30–3834 / 30–4032 / 27–3926 / 21–3417 / 14–269 / 7–184 / 3–122 / 1–9
RH %67 / 59–7366 / 59–7164 / 60–6962 / 59–6662 / 58–6563 / 58–6663 / 59–6864 / 60–6864 / 61–6965 / 61–7167 / 61–7367 / 60–73
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1449 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1613 records in those cells; 31 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 671:3928 (56.425, 16.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.4 °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 1449 distinct grid cells holding 1613 of the 1644 in-range records (31 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 671:3928 (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 56.50_16.250, lapse-corrected -14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 24 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.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Føroyar, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Morocco, Altay, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, China North-Central, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Alaska, Greenland, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Mexico Northwest, Bolivia, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile North · 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 marker56.661, -4.53 · in the densest population, 326 records (18% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1813 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1613 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1644 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1187 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1490 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 169 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 1813 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Eleocharis quinqueflora, photograph 1did not loadEleocharis quinqueflora, photograph 2did not loadEleocharis quinqueflora, photograph 3did not loadEleocharis quinqueflora, photograph 4did not loadEleocharis quinqueflora, photograph 5did not loadEleocharis quinqueflora, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Dustin Snider, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Ljaž, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Andrejus Gaidamavičius, 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.

Alchemilla glabra Alchemilla glabra Smooth lady's-mantle Photo: CC BY, Jamie O'NeillEuphrasia micrantha Euphrasia micrantha Northern eyebright Photo: CC BY, Jake DalzellPinguicula vulgaris Pinguicula vulgaris Common butterwort Photo: CC0, author not statedAria rupicola Aria rupicola Rock Whitebeam Photo: CC BY-SA, Jostein ElvestrandIsoetes lacustris Isoetes lacustris Lake quillwort Photo: CC BY, Micki ColbeckLobelia dortmanna Lobelia dortmanna Water lobelia Photo: CC BY, Chline River

Other Eleocharis 27 in the reference

Eleocharis acicularis Eleocharis acicularis Needle spike-rush Photo: CC BY, Jason GrantEleocharis acuta Eleocharis acuta Sharp Spike Sedge Photo: CC BY, Arnim LittekEleocharis baldwinii Eleocharis baldwinii Baldwin's spike-rush Photo: CC BY, Ashwin SrinivasanEleocharis cellulosa Eleocharis cellulosa Gulf Coast spikerush Photo: CC BY, Jody ShugartEleocharis congesta Eleocharis congesta Spikerush Photo: CC0, author not stated Eleocharis dombeyana Cyperaceae Eleocharis dulcis Eleocharis dulcis Chinese water chestnut Photo: CC BY, Scott W. GavinsEleocharis elegans Eleocharis elegans Elegant spikerush Photo: CC BY, Samuel Peláez VélezEleocharis exigua Eleocharis exigua Rooted Spikerush Photo: CC BY-SA, Trap HersEleocharis geniculata Eleocharis geniculata Canada spikesedge Photo: CC0, author not statedEleocharis interstincta Eleocharis interstincta Knotted spikerush Photo: CC BY, Josiah LonderéeEleocharis macrostachya Eleocharis macrostachya Pale spikerush Photo: CC BY, Nathan Aaron all 28 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Baeothryon halleri; Baeothryon pauciflorum; Clavula baeothryon; Clavula boeotryon; Cyperus pauciflorus and 40 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cyperaceae
Described by
(Hartmann) O.Schwarz
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Føroyar +103
Wild records
1813 in range · 1187 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 9 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 56.50_16.250, lapse-corrected -14 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
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 193 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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