Carex tomentosa, the downey-fruited sedge, is dispersed throughout Central Europe in scattered groups and is a rarely found member of the family Cyperaceae.

The stiff, upright triangular stem is rough and hairy and the top and has a blackish red sheath at its base.

The fruit tubes are 1.5 to 2 mm long, with a grey-brown color, spherically ovulate, and have a hairy, felt-like surface.

[1] Carex tomentosa comes from southern Scandinavia and England to northern Italy, the Balkans and western Siberia.

[2] It rises up in the Alps at elevations which are barely above 1500 m.[2] The downey-fruited sedge needs dry summers, but moist winters and springs, loamy or clayey, lime or calcareous nitrogen-poor soil in not too shaded areas.