Grass or grass-like · Cyperaceae
Blunt broom sedge
Carex tribuloides · includes its varieties and subspecies
Blunt broom sedge is recorded as native to 35 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 983 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Key facts · USDA PLANTS
Blunt broom sedge at a glance
- Native in
- 983 counties, across 35 states and territories
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 4b PLANTS minimum temperature −28°F
- Mature height
- 3 ft PLANTS mature height
- Light and water
- Tolerates shade Medium water use
Estimated cold hardiness: zone 4b. PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of −28°F; zone 4b winters bottom out at −25°F, the coldest half-zone that stays within that limit.
Blunt broom sedge is recorded as native to 35 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 983 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Counties where it is native
The 15 counties with the most ZIP codes among the 983 where it is listed.
Native counties by state
- Alabama 15 counties
- Arkansas 24 counties
- Connecticut statewide record
- Delaware 3 counties
- District of Columbia 1 county
- Florida 5 counties
- Georgia 15 counties
- Illinois 72 counties
- Indiana 59 counties
- Iowa 8 counties
- Kentucky 58 counties
- Louisiana 46 counties
- Maine 13 counties
- Maryland 23 counties
- Massachusetts 12 counties
- Michigan 52 counties
- Minnesota 21 counties
- Mississippi 4 counties
- Missouri 77 counties
- Nebraska 15 counties
- New Hampshire 9 counties
- New Jersey 18 counties
- New York 41 counties
- North Carolina 47 counties
- Ohio 56 counties
- Oklahoma 4 counties
- Pennsylvania 61 counties
- Rhode Island 2 counties
- South Carolina 11 counties
- Tennessee 44 counties
- Texas 18 counties
- Vermont 9 counties
- Virginia 75 counties
- West Virginia 28 counties
- Wisconsin 37 counties
Growing traits
Values from the PLANTS characteristics record. “Not recorded” means PLANTS has no value; nothing here is estimated except the zone.
Growth
- Growth habit
- Graminoid
- Duration
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3 ft
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Growth form
- Bunch
- Shape
- Erect
- Lifespan
- Moderate
- Active growth period
- Spring and Summer
Light and water
- Shade tolerance
- Tolerant (tolerates shade)
- Moisture use
- Medium water use
- Drought tolerance
- Low
- Tolerance of waterlogged soil
- High
- Precipitation range
- 32 to 50 in per year
Soil
- Soil textures
- Medium and fine
- pH range
- 4.8 to 7
- Lime (CaCO₃) tolerance
- Low
- Salinity tolerance
- None
- Fertility requirement
- Medium
- Minimum root depth
- 8 in
Climate
- Minimum temperature
- −28°F
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 4b and warmer
- Minimum frost-free days
- 85
- Fire tolerance
- High
Flowers, leaves and fruit
- Flower color
- Green
- Showy flowers
- No
- Bloom period
- Late Spring
- Foliage color
- Green
- Showy in fall
- No
- Keeps leaves
- No
- Fruit color
- Brown
Other
- Toxicity
- None
- Nitrogen fixation
- None
- Nursery availability
- Routinely Available
- Family
- Cyperaceae
- PLANTS symbol
- CATR7
Source & data date
- Source
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).
- Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.
- USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
- Citation
- USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.
- Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
- Data date
- Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
- Scope
- Carex tribuloides (PLANTS symbol CATR7), including 2 varieties and subspecies folded into the species.
- Method
- A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources