Carex is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

s in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

, commonly known as sedge

Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

s. Other members of the Cyperaceae family are also called sedges, however those of genus Carex may be called "true" sedges, and it is the most species-rich genus in the family. The study of Carex is known as caricology.

Description

All species of Carex are perennials

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

. They typically have rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

s, stolon

Stolon

In biology, stolons are horizontal connections between organisms. They may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton; typically, animal stolons are external skeletons.-In botany:...

s or short rootstock

Rootstock

A rootstock is a plant, and sometimes just the stump, which already has an established, healthy root system, used for grafting a cutting or budding from another plant. The tree part being grafted onto the rootstock is usually called the scion...

s, but some species grow in tufts (caespitose). The culm – the flower-bearing stalk – is unbranched and usually erect. It is usually distinctly triangular in section.

The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 of Carex comprise a blade, which extends away from the stalk, and a sheath, which encloses part of the stalk. The blade is normally long and flat, but may be folded, inrolled, channelled or absent. The leaves have parallel veins, and where the blade meets the culm, there is a structure called the ligule

Ligule

A ligule — is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses and sedges or a strap-shaped corolla, such as that of a ray floret in plants in the daisy family....

.

The flowers of Carex are small and are combined into spikes, which are themselves combined into a larger inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

. The spike typically contains many flowers, but can hold as few as one in some species. Almost all Carex species are monoecious; each flower is either male (staminate) or female (pistillate). A few species are dioecious. Sedges exhibit diverse arrangements of male and female flowers. Often, the lower spikes are entirely pistillate and upper spikes staminate, with one or more spikes in between having pistillate flowers near the base and staminate flowers near the tip. In other species, all spikes are similar. In that case, they may have male flowers above and female flowers below (androgynous) or female flowers above and male flowers below (gynecandrous). In relatively few species, the arrangement of flowers is irregular.

The defining structure of the genus Carex is the bottle-shaped bract that surrounds each female flower. This structure is called the perigynium or utricle, a modified prophyll. It is typically extended into a "rostrum" or beak, which is often divided at the tip (bifid) into two teeth. The shape, venation, and vestiture (hairs) of the perigynium are important structures for distinguishing Carex species.

The fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 of Carex is a dry, one-seeded indehiscent achene

Achene

An achene is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate and indehiscent...

 or nut

Nut (fruit)

A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...

 which grows within the perigynium. Perigynium features aid in fruit dispersal.

Habitat

Most (but not all) sedges are found in wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s – such as marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

es, calcareous fens

Fen

A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...

, bog

Bog

A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

s and other peat

Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...

lands, pond and stream banks

Bank (geography)

A geographic bank has four definitions and applications:# Limnology: The shoreline of a pond, swamp, estuary, reservoir, or lake. The grade can vary from vertical to a shallow slope....

, riparian zone

Riparian zone

A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the fifteen terrestrial biomes of the earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by...

s, and even ditches – where they are often the dominant vegetation

Vegetation

Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...

.

Horticulture

Carex species and cultivars are well represented in the horticulture

Horticulture

Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...

 industry, landscape design

Landscape design

Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practised by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice landscape design bridges between landscape architecture and garden design.-Design scope:...

 projects, and private garden

Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...

s. Native species

Native plant

Native plant is a term to describe plants endemic or naturalized to a given area in geologic time.This includes plants that have developed, occur naturally, or existed for many years in an area...

 are used in wildland

Natural environment

The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....

 habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

 restoration

Restoration ecology

-Definition:Restoration ecology is the scientific study and practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human intervention and action, within a short time frame...

 projects, Natural landscaping and gardens

Natural landscaping

.Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of native plants, including trees, shrubs, groundcover, and grasses which are indigenous to the geographic area of the garden.-Maintenance:...

, and in sustainable landscaping

Sustainable landscaping

Sustainable landscaping encompasses a variety of practices that have developed in response to environmental issues. These practices are used in every phase of landscaping, including design, construction, implementation and management of residential and commercial landscapes. Issues of...

 as drought tolerant

Xeriscaping

Xeriscaping and xerogardening refers to landscaping and gardening in ways that reduce or eliminate the need for supplemental water from irrigation...

 grass replacements for lawn

Lawn

A lawn is an area of aesthetic and recreational land planted with grasses or other durable plants, which usually are maintained at a low and consistent height. Low ornamental meadows in natural landscaping styles are a contemporary option of a lawn...

s and garden meadow

Meadow

A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...

s. Both ornamental

Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...

 cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...

s (many from Japan) and native species

Native plant

Native plant is a term to describe plants endemic or naturalized to a given area in geologic time.This includes plants that have developed, occur naturally, or existed for many years in an area...

 selections are used as perennials in traditional gardens.

Taxonomy

The genus Carex was established by Carl Linnaeus in his work Species Plantarum

Species Plantarum

Species Plantarum was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work by Carl Linnaeus. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today. This means that the first names to be considered validly published in botany are those that appear...

in 1753, and is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Estimates of the number of species vary from about 1100 to almost 2000. Species include:

• Carex abrupta
  Carex abrupta
  Carex abrupta is a species of sedge known by the common name abrupt-beaked sedge or abruptbeak sedge. It is native to the western United States from California to Idaho, where it grows in moist mountain habitat such as meadows.-Description:...
  
  Mack.
• Carex acuta
  Carex acuta
  Carex acuta or Acute Sedge, Slender Tufted-sedge, Slim Sedge can be found growing on the margins of rivers and lakes in the Palaearctic terrestrial ecoregions in beds of wet, alkaline or slightly acid depressions with mineral soil....
  
  L.
• Carex acutiformis
  Carex acutiformis
  Carex acutiformis, the lesser pond sedge, is a species of sedge.-Description:It grows up to tall, with leaves up to long and wide.-Ecology:...
  
  Ehrh.
• Carex albida
  Carex albida
  Carex albida is a very rare species of sedge known by the common name white sedge. It is endemic to Sonoma County, California, where it is known only from one occurrence at Pitkin Marsh, a wetland between Forestville and Sebastopol. There are fewer than 1000 plants remaining, and likely fewer than...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex albonigra
  Carex albonigra
  Carex albonigra is a species of sedge known by the common name black and white sedge. It is native to western North America from Alaska and most of western Canada to California to New Mexico, where it grows in mainly dry, rocky high mountain habitat such as talus. This sedge forms a dense clump 10...
  
  Mack.
• Carex alma
  Carex alma
  Carex alma is a species of sedge known by the common name sturdy sedge. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in moist spots in a number of habitat types. This sedge forms a thick clump of thin stems up to 90 centimeters in length and long, thready...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex amplifolia
  Carex amplifolia
  Carex amplifolia is a species of sedge known by the common name bigleaf sedge. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Montana to California, where it grows in wet and seasonally wet areas in coniferous forests.-Description:...
  
  Boott
• Carex angustata
  Carex angustata
  Carex angustata is a species of sedge known by the common name widefruit sedge. It is native to the western United States from Washington and Idaho to California, where it grows in wet meadows and on streambanks.-Description:...
  
  Boott
• Carex appropinquata
  Carex appropinquata
  Carex appropinquata is a species of plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges.- Synonyms :* Carex paniculata var. paradoxa Fiori* Carex paradoxa Willd....
  
  Schumach.
• Carex aquatilis
  Carex aquatilis
  Carex aquatilis is a species of sedge known by the common names water sedge and leafy tussock sedge. It has a circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout the northern reaches of the Northern Hemisphere. It grows in many types of mountainous and Arctic habitat, including temperate coniferous...
  
  Wahlenb.
• Carex arcta
  Carex arcta
  Carex arcta is a species of sedge known by the common name northern cluster sedge. It is native to northern North America including most of Canada and northern parts of the United States. It grows in wet areas, especially in coniferous forests. This sedge produces dense clumps of erect stems up to...
  
  Boott
• Carex arenaria
  Carex arenaria
  Carex arenaria, or Sand sedge, is a species of perennial sedge of the genus Carex which is commonly growing in dunes and other sandy habitats, as the Latin species epithet suggests. It growths by long stolons under the soil surface....
  
  L.
• Carex atherodes
  Carex atherodes
  Carex atherodes is a species of sedge known by the common name wheat sedge. It is native to Eurasia and much of North America including most of Canada and the United States. It is a very common wetland plant across the American Midwest and areas west. It grows in moist and wet habitat, such as...
  
  Spreng.
• Carex athrostachya
  Carex athrostachya
  Carex athrostachya is a species of sedge known by the common name slenderbeak sedge. It is native to western North America, including Alaska to central Canada, the western contiguous United States, and just into Baja California.-Description:...
  
  Olney
• Carex aurea
  Carex aurea
  Carex aurea is a species of sedge known by the common name golden sedge. It is native to much of North America, including most of Canada and the western and central United States. It grows in wet habitat, often on soils of a basic pH.-Description:...
  
  Nutt.
• Carex azuayae
  Carex azuayae
  Carex azuayae is a species of plant in the Cyperaceae family. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland....
  
  Steyerm.
• Carex barbarae
  Carex barbarae
  Carex barbarae is a species of sedge known by the common name Santa Barbara sedge. It is native to California and Oregon, where it grows in wet and seasonally wet habitat, such as meadows and riverbanks. This sedge produces angled, hairless stems up to one meter tall or slightly taller, but not in...
  
  Dewey
• Carex binervis
  Carex binervis
  Carex binervis, the green-ribbed sedge, is a European species of sedge with an Atlantic distribution. It is found from Fennoscandia to the Iberian Peninsula, and occurs in heaths, moorland and other damp, acidic environments. It typically grows to a height of , and has inflorescences comprising one...
  
  Sm.
• Carex buxbaumii
  Carex buxbaumii
  Carex buxbaumii is a species of sedge known by the common name Buxbaum's sedge. It is native to much of the northern Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Greenland to Eurasia and including most of Canada and the United States. It grows in wet habitat, such as marshes and fens. This sedge grows in...
  
  Wahlenb.
• Carex canescens
  Carex canescens
  Carex canescens L. is a perennial species of plants in the family Cyperaceae with pluriregional distribution growing in damp forests and wetlands.-External links:*...
  
  L.
• Carex capitata
  Carex capitata
  Carex capitata is a species of sedge known by the common name capitate sedge. It has a circumboreal distribution, growing in wet places in boreal forests and mountain meadows in alpine climates.-Description:...
  
  L.
• Carex cespitosa
  Carex cespitosa
  Carex cespitosa is a species of perennial sedge of the genus Carex which can be found growing in bundles as the Latin specific epithet suggests. The species is able to hybridise with the common sedge to produce a tall plant, flowering from May to June...
  
  L.
• Carex chordorrhiza
  Carex chordorrhiza
  Carex chordorrhiza, commonly called creeping sedge or string sedge, is a species of perennial plant in the family Cyperaceae with Holarctic distribution growing in acidic bogs.-Growth form and classification:...
  
  L. f.
• Carex comosa
  Carex comosa
  Carex comosa is a species of sedge known by the common name longhair sedge. It is native to North America, where it grows in western and eastern regions of Canada and the United States, and parts of Mexico. It grows in wet places, including meadows and many types of wetlands. Tolerates deeper water...
  
  Boott
• Carex concinnoides
  Carex concinnoides
  Carex concinnoides is a species of sedge known by the common name northwestern sedge. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California, where it can be found in moist or dry habitat, often in woodland and forested slopes, on silty and clay soils. This sedge produces loose...
  
  Mack.
• Carex cusickii
  Carex cusickii
  Carex cusickii is a species of sedge known by the common name Cusick's sedge. It is native to Northwestern North America from British Columbia to California, and in Utah, where it can be found in several types of wet habitat, such as marshes, mountain meadows, and ditches...
  
  Mack. ex Piper & Beattie
• Carex depauperata
  Carex depauperata
  Carex depauperata is a rare species of sedge native to parts of Europe. The plant has been virtually extinct in the United Kingdom since the 1940s....
  
  Curtis ex With.
• Carex diandra
  Carex diandra
  Carex diandra is a species of sedge known by the common name lesser panicled sedge.-Distribution:It is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, where it can be found throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. It is also known from New Zealand...
  
  Schrank
• Carex disperma
  Carex disperma
  Carex disperma is a species of sedge known by the common name softleaf sedge. It is native to much of the northern Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Greenland, most of Canada and the contiguous United States, and across Eurasia.-Description:...
  
  Dewey
• Carex disticha
  Carex disticha
  Carex disticha is a species of sedge, whose common name is Two-ranked Sedge. It is native to parts of Northern and Western Europe, where it grows in moist spots in a number of habitat types, and it has been introduced to the Great Lakes region of southern Canada...
  
  Huds.
• Carex douglasii
  Carex douglasii
  Carex douglasii is a species of sedge known by the common name Douglas' sedge.-Distribution:It is native to much of western North America, including the western Canadian provinces, the western United States, and Baja California. It grows in dry, wet, and seasonally moist habitat, from prairie and...
  
  Boott
• Carex echinata
  Carex echinata
  Carex echinata is a species of sedge known by the common names star sedge and little prickly sedge.-Distribution:This plant is native to North and Central America and parts of Eurasia. Carex echinata is a plant of wet forests, marshes, and mountain meadows of moderate elevation...
  
  Murray
• Carex emoryi
  Carex emoryi
  Carex emoryi, the Riverbank tussock sedge or Emory's sedge, is a very attractive and functional native plant for stormwater applications. It thrives with alternating cycles of wet and dry, making it ideal for vegetated swales and infiltration basins.Native to much of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, C...
  
  Dewey
• Carex ericetorum
  Carex ericetorum
  Carex ericetorum is a perennial species of plants in the family Cyperaceae native to Eurasia and growing on sandy soils in pine forests....
  
  Pollich
• Carex festucacea
  Carex festucacea
  Carex festucacea or fescue sedge is a species of sedge that lives in eastern North America. It has been described as "a soft, gray green, wisp, to 2', with narrow leaves and somewhat taller stems, topped by an interrupted spike, with lower spikelets, shaped a bit like an overflowing ice cream cone...
  
  Schkuhr ex Willd.
• Carex filifolia
  Carex filifolia
  Carex filifolia is a species of sedge known by the common name threadleaf sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to much of western North America, from Alaska to California and Manitoba to New Mexico, where it grows in moist and dry habitat....
  
  Nutt.
• Carex flacca
  Carex flacca
  Carex flacca, with common names blue sedge, gray carex, glaucous sedge, or carnation-grass, , is a species of sedge native to parts of Europe and North Africa....
  
  Schreb.
• Carex fracta
  Carex fracta
  Carex fracta is a species of sedge known by the common name fragile sheath sedge. It is native to the western United States from Washington to California, where it grows in moist to dry areas in mountain forests and meadows. This sedge produces dense clumps of stems sometimes exceeding a meter tall...
  
  Mack.
• Carex geyeri
  Carex geyeri
  Carex geyeri is a species of sedge known by the common names Geyer's sedge and elk sedge. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California to Colorado, where it grows in dry areas in mountain meadows, grasslands, and open forest. This sedge produces scattered tufts of stems...
  
  Boott
• Carex globularis
  Carex globularis
  Carex globularis is a perennial species of sedge in the family Cyperaceae native to damp forests and wetlands of Asia and Eastern Europe....
  
  L.
• Carex hassei
  Carex hassei
  Carex hassei is a species of sedge known by the common name salt sedge. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Baja California to New Mexico, where it grows in moist places, such as meadows.-Description:...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex haydeniana
  Carex haydeniana
  Carex haydeniana is a species of sedge known by the common name cloud sedge. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California to New Mexico, where it grows in moist, rocky areas in subalpine and alpine climates. This sedge produces clumps of drooping to decumbent stems up...
  
  Olney
• Carex helleri
  Carex helleri
  Carex helleri is a species of sedge known by the common name Heller's sedge. It is native to eastern California and western Nevada, where it grows on rocky mountain slopes and in other habitats.-Description:...
  
  Mack.
• Carex heteroneura
  Carex heteroneura
  Carex heteroneura is a species of sedge known by the common name different-nerve sedge. It is native to western Canada and the western United States, where it grows in moist mountain habitat such as forests and meadows.-Description:...
  
  W. Boott
• Carex hirta
  Carex hirta
  Carex hirta, the hairy sedge, is a species of sedge found across Europe. It has characteristic hairy leaves and inflorescences, and is the type species of the genus Carex.-Description:...
  
  L.
• Carex hoodii
  Carex hoodii
  Carex hoodii is a species of sedge known by the common name Hood's sedge. It is native to western North America from Alaska to California to South Dakota, where it grows in dry to moist habitat in forests and on mountain slopes.-Description:...
  
  Boott
• Carex hystericina
  Carex hystericina
  Carex hystericina is a species of sedge known by the common names bottlebrush sedge and porcupine sedge. It is native to much of North America including most of southern Canada and most of the United States. It grows in wet habitat such as wetlands and riverbanks, especially on calcareous soils. In...
  
  Muhl. ex Willd.
• Carex illota
  Carex illota
  Carex illota is a species of sedge known by the common name sheep sedge. It is native to western North America, where it grows in wet places such as marshes and mountain meadows, from New Mexico and California north to Western Canada.-Description:...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex interior
  Carex interior
  Carex interior is a species of sedge known by the common name inland sedge. It is native to much of North America from Alaska to northern Mexico to the mid-Atlantic United States. It grows in wet habitat, most often in calcareous soils. This sedge produces clumps of stems approaching a meter in...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex intumescens
  Carex intumescens
  Carex intumescens, also known as bladder sedge, is a species of Carex...
  
  Rudge
• Carex jamesii
  Carex jamesii
  Carex jamesii is a sedge native to North America from Minnesota east to New York and south to Oklahoma and South Carolina. It occurs in mesic hardwood forests and flowers from early May to mid July. For its genus, it is a distinctive species when in flower. It has two to four perigynia that are...
  
  Schwein.
• Carex japonica
  Carex japonica
  Carex japonica is a species of perennial sedge of the genus Carex which can be used like an ornamental plant.-External links:...
  
  Thunb.
• Carex jonesii
  Carex jonesii
  Carex jonesii is a species of sedge known by the common name Jones' sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the Western United States from California to Montana to Colorado, where it grows in moist areas, especially in subalpine mountain habitat.-Description:Carex jonesii produces clumps of...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex klamathensis
  Carex klamathensis
  Carex klamathensis is a rare species of sedge known by the common name Klamath sedge. It is known from 15 or fewer occurrences in northern California and southern Oregon. It was described to science only in 2007. Its habitat includes fens and other moist and wet habitat, generally on serpentine...
  
  B. L. Wilson & Janeway
• Carex lasiocarpa
  Carex lasiocarpa
  Carex lasiocarpa is a species of sedge known by the common names slender sedge and woollyfruit sedge.-Distribution:This is an aquatic or shore plant of wet areas in mountainous areas of moderate elevation. It is found across much of North America and Eurasia...
  
  Ehrh.
• Carex lenticularis
  Carex lenticularis
  Carex lenticularis is a species of sedge known by the common name lakeshore sedge. It is native to much of northern North America, including most all of Canada and the western United States, where it grows in wet habitat.-Description:...
  
  Michx.
• Carex lepida
  Carex lepida
  Carex lepida is a species of plant in the Cyperaceae family. It is endemic to Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montanes....
  
  Boott
• Carex leporina L.
• Carex leporinella
  Carex leporinella
  Carex leporinella is a species of sedge known by the common name Sierra hare sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the western United States from California, such as the Sierra Nevada, to Wyoming, where it grows in moist mountain habitats, such as meadows.-Description:Carex leporinella...
  
  Mack.
• Carex leptalea
  Carex leptalea
  Carex leptalea is a species of sedge known by the common names bristly-stalked sedge and flaccid sedge. It is native to much of North America including most of Canada and the United States. It only grows in wetlands. This sedge produces dense clusters of thin stems up to 70 centimeters tall from a...
  
  Wahlenb.
• Carex limosa
  Carex limosa
  Carex limosa is a species of sedge known by the common names mud sedge and shore sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is an aquatic or shore plant which can most often be found in peat bogs in mountains. It is distributed across North America and Eurasia.-Description:Carex limosa has a large rhizome and...
  
  L.
• Carex lutea
  Carex lutea
  Carex lutea is a rare species of sedge known by the common names golden sedge and sulphur sedge. It is endemic to North Carolina, where it is known only from Pender and Onslow Counties in the Cape Fear River watershed. There are nine populations...
  
  LeBlond
• Carex luzulina
  Carex luzulina
  Carex luzulina is a species of sedge known by the common name woodrush sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to western North America from British Columbia to California to Wyoming, where it grows in wet habitat such as bogs and mountain meadows.-Description:Carex luzulina produces loose to...
  
  Olney
• Carex lyngbyei
  Carex lyngbyei
  Carex lyngbyei is a species of sedge known by the common name Lyngbye's sedge. It is native to the west coast of North America from Alaska to California, where it "is the common sedge of the Pacific coastal salt marshes." It is also known from Greenland and Iceland. It grows in habitat with...
  
  Hornem.
• Carex mariposana
  Carex mariposana
  Carex mariposana is a species of sedge known by the common name Mariposa sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the Sierra Nevada of California and far western Nevada, where it grows in moist areas such as meadows.-Description:...
  
  L. H. Bailey & Mack.
• Carex mertensii
  Carex mertensii
  Carex mertensii is a species of sedge known by the common name Mertens' sedge. It is native to western North America from Alaska to California to Montana, where it grows in moist and wet habitat in mountain forests and meadows. This sedge produces clumps of stems reaching maximum heights between 80...
  
  Prescott ex Bong.
• Carex microptera
  Carex microptera
  Carex microptera is a species of sedge known by the common name smallwing sedge. It is native to western North America, including most all of western Canada and the western United States. It occurs in moist mountain habitat such as meadows and riverbanks. This sedge produces dense clumps of erect...
  
  Mack.
• Carex molesta
  Carex molesta
  Carex molesta is a species of sedge known by the common name troublesome sedge. It is native to eastern and central North America, where it grows in varied wet and dry habitats, performs equally well in full sun and partial shade, including disturbed areas such as roadsides. It is an introduced...
  
  Mack. ex Bright
• Carex multicaulis
  Carex multicaulis
  Carex multicaulis is a species of sedge known by the common name manystem sedge. It is native to California, western Nevada, and southern Oregon, where it grows in chaparral and open forest montane habitats.-Description:...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex multicostata
  Carex multicostata
  Carex multicostata is a species of sedge known by the common name manyrib sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the western United States from California to Montana, where it grows mainly in dry areas in mountain ranges, such as the Sierra Nevada and Transverse Ranges.-Description:Carex...
  
  Mack.
• Carex nebrascensis
  Carex nebrascensis
  Carex nebrascensis is a species of sedge known by the common name Nebraska sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the central and Western United States and north into central Canada. It grows in wetlands at various elevations, including the Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert sky islands...
  
  Dewey
• Carex nervina
  Carex nervina
  Carex nervina is a species of sedge known by the common name Sierra sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to California, including the Sierra Nevada and San Joaquin Valley, and adjacent parts of Oregon and Nevada, where it grows mainly in mountain meadows.-Description:Carex nervina forms thick...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex neurophora
  Carex neurophora
  Carex neurophora is a species of sedge known by the common name alpine nerve sedge. It is native to the western United States, where it grows in wet mountain habitat such as meadows and streambanks. This sedge produces stems up to about 60 centimeters tall and inflorescences which are dense, oblong...
  
  Mack. in Abrams
• Carex nigra
  Carex nigra
  Carex nigra Reichard is a perennial species of plants in the family Cyperaceae native to wetlands of Europe, western Asia, NW Africa and E North America. The eastern limit of its range reaches central Siberia, Turkey and probably Caucasus....
  
  (L.) Reichard
• Carex nigricans
  Carex nigricans
  Carex nigricans is a species of sedge known by the common name black alpine sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to western North America from Alaska to the Sierra Nevada in California, to Colorado, where it grows in wet areas in mountain, taiga, and tundra habitat.-Description:Carex nigricans...
  
  C. A. Mey.
• Carex nudata
  Carex nudata
  Carex nudata is a species of true sedge known by several common names, including torrent sedge, California black-flowering sedge, Dudley's sedge, and naked sedge.-Distribution:...
  
  S.Watson
• Carex obnupta
  Carex obnupta
  Carex obnupta is a species of sedge known by the common name slough sedge. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California where it grows abundantly in wet, often saline habitat such as wetlands. The plant produces upright, angled stems approaching 1.2 meters in maximum...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex occidentalis
  Carex occidentalis
  Carex occidentalis is a species of sedge known by the common name western sedge. It is native to the southwestern United States and parts of the west as far north as Montana. It grows mainly in dry habitat such as woodland and grassland. The plant produces very narrow stems up to about 90...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex pachystachya
  Carex pachystachya
  Carex pachystachya is a species of sedge known by the common name Chamisso sedge. It is native to western North America from Alaska to Saskatchewan to California, where it grows in dry to wet areas in many types of forest and grassland habitat. This sedge produces dense clumps of erect stems up to...
  
  Cham. ex Steud.
• Carex paleacea
  Carex paleacea
  Carex paleacea is one of the 579 species of Carex. The Wetland Indicator Status for the species is classified as "obligate wetland" , occurring 99% of the time in a typical salt marsh environment when conditions are favorable....
  
  Schreb. ex Wahlenb.
• Carex pansa
  Carex pansa
  Carex pansa is a species of sedge known by the common name sand dune sedge. It is native to coast of western North America from British Columbia to California, where it grows in dunes and other sandy habitat. This grasslike sedge produces sharply triangular stems up to about 40 centimeters tall...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex pauciflora
  Carex pauciflora
  Carex pauciflora is a perennial species of sedge in the family Cyperaceae native to Holarctic wetlands....
  
  Lightf.
• Carex paupercula
  Carex paupercula
  Carex paupercula Michx. is a perennial species of plants in the family Cyperaceae native to Holarctic wetlands....
  
  Michx.
• Carex pellita
  Carex pellita
  Carex pellita is a species of sedge known by the common name woolly sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to much of North America, including southern Canada and the United States, except the Southeast.-Description:...
  
  Muhl. ex Willd.
• Carex pendula
  Carex pendula
  Carex pendula is a large sedge of the genus Carex. It occurs in woodland, scrubland, hedges and beside streams, preferring damp, heavy clay soils...
  
  Huds.
• Carex pensylvanica
  Carex pensylvanica
  Carex pensylvanica is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family commonly called Pennsylvania sedge.-Distribution:Based on a census of the literature, herbaria specimens, and confirmed sightings, C. pensylvanica is found in Manitoba Ontario and Quebec in Canada; and in the United States...
  
  Lam.
• Carex petasata
  Carex petasata
  Carex petasata is a species of sedge known by the common name Liddon sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to much of western North America, from Alaska and northwestern Canada to California and to New Mexico, where it grows in several habitat types, including dry and wet, and low to high...
  
  Dewey
• Carex phaeocephala
  Carex phaeocephala
  Carex phaeocephala is a species of sedge known by the common name dunhead sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to much of western North America, from Alaska to California to New Mexico, where it grows from foothills to high elevation habitats, including areas of alpine climate, generally in...
  
  Piper
• Carex pilulifera‎ L.
• Carex praeceptorum
  Carex praeceptorum
  Carex praeceptorum is a species of sedge known by the common names early sedge and teacher's sedge. It is native to much of western North America, from British Columbia to California to Colorado, where it grows in wet, marshy habitat such as bogs and lakeshores...
  
  Mack.
• Carex praegracilis
  Carex praegracilis
  Carex praegracilis is a species of sedge known by the common names clustered field sedge, field sedge, and expressway sedge.-Distribution:...
  
  W. Boott
• Carex praticola
  Carex praticola
  Carex praticola is a species of sedge known by the common name meadow sedge. It is native to most of northern North America, including most of Canada and the northernmost United States. It grows in many habitat types from wet to dry, including moist mountain meadows and woodlands. This sedge...
  
  Rydb.
• Carex preussii
  Carex preussii
  Carex preussii is a species of plant in the Cyperaceae family. It is endemic to Cameroon. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests. It is threatened by habitat loss....
  
  K. Schum.
• Carex proposita
  Carex proposita
  Carex proposita is a species of sedge known by the common name Great Smoky Mountain sedge. It has a scattered distribution in parts of the western United States, including Washington, Idaho, and California. It was named for the Smoky Mountains of Idaho, not the Great Smoky Mountains, where it does...
  
  Mack.
• Carex raynoldsii
  Carex raynoldsii
  Carex raynoldsii is a species of sedge known by the common name Raynolds' sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to western North America from California to Colorado to Yukon, where it grows in mountain meadows in subalpine and alpine climates....
  
  Dewey
• Carex riparia
  Carex riparia
  Carex riparia, the greater pond sedge, is a species of sedge found across Europe and Asia. It grows in a variety of wet habitats, and can be a dominant species in some swamps. It is Britain's largest Carex, growing up to tall, with glaucous leaves up to long...
  
  Curtis
• Carex rossii
  Carex rossii
  Carex rossii, commonly known as Ross's sedge, is a hardy, monoecious species of sedge that is often a pioneer species in areas with little or no established vegetation, or in places where disturbance has occurred. It flowers in May and June....
  
  Boott
• Carex rostrata
  Carex rostrata
  Carex rostrata, bottle sedge, is a perennial species of sedge in the family Cyperaceae native to Holarctic fens....
  
  Stokes
• Carex scoparia
  Carex scoparia
  Carex scoparia is a species of sedge known by the common names broom sedge and pointed broom sedge. It should not be confused with the unrelated grass species known as "broom sedge," Andropogon virginicus.-Distribution:...
  
  Schkuhr ex Willd.
• Carex secta
  Carex secta
  Carex secta is a sedge that is endemic to New Zealand. It has a variety of common names including niggerhead and makuru....
  
  Boott
• Carex serotina
  Carex serotina
  Carex serotina is a species of sedge.- Synonyms :* Carex oederi auct. non Retz. * Carex oederi Retz. ssp. viridula Hultén * Carex oederi Retz. var. recterostrata Dorn...
  
  Mérat
• Carex sheldonii
  Carex sheldonii
  Carex sheldonii is a species of sedge known by the common name Sheldon's sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the Western United States, where it grows in wet areas such as lakeshores and moist meadows.-Description:...
  
  Mack.
• Carex siderosticta
  Carex siderosticta
  Carex siderosticta is a species of sedge native to East Asia. It is the only species of Carex known to produce "pseudo-lateral" culms, which appear to be lateral, but derive from the apical meristem.-External links:* , GBIF* , Encyclopedia of Life...
  
  Hance
• Carex simulata
  Carex simulata
  Carex simulata is a species of sedge known by the common name analogue sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the western United States and western Canada, where it grows in many types of wet habitat, from mountain meadows to ditches, often in alkaline conditions.-Description:Carex simulata...
  
  Mack.
• Carex sodiroi
  Carex sodiroi
  Carex sodiroi is a species of sedge known from a single collection made by Luis Sodiro at some time before 1886. It was found around from Nanegalito, and described as a new species by the sedge expert Georg Kükenthal in 1904...
  
  Kük.
• Carex sparganioides
  Carex sparganioides
  Bur-reed sedge is a perennial plant belonging to the sedge family . Its native range includes most of the Eastern and Central U.S., and it is typically found in hardwood or mixed forests...
  
  Muhl. ex Willd.
• Carex specifica
  Carex specifica
  Carex specifica is a species of sedge known by the common name narrowfruit sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to montane California, such as the Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountains, and in far northwestern Nevada...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex spectabilis
  Carex spectabilis
  Carex spectabilis is a species of sedge known by the common name showy sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to northwestern North America from Alaska to the Northwestern United States, and in California and Utah...
  
  Dewey
• Carex specuicola
  Carex specuicola
  Carex specuicola is a rare species of sedge known by the common name Navajo sedge. It is native to a small section of the Colorado Plateau in the United States, its distribution straddling the border between Utah and Arizona, and completely within the Navajo Nation. There are several populations...
  
  J. T. Howell
• Carex spissa
  Carex spissa
  Carex spissa is a species of sedge known by the common name San Diego sedge. It is native to the southwestern United States and far northern Mexico, where it grows in wet places, sometimes on serpentine soils. This sedge looks somewhat like a cattail...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex straminiformis
  Carex straminiformis
  Carex straminiformis is a species of sedge known by the common name Shasta sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the Western United States where it grows in a number of habitat types in rocky soils, such as in the Sierra Nevada and Mount Shasta regions.-Description:Carex straminiformis...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex stricta
  Carex stricta
  Carex stricta is a species of sedge known by the common name Tussock Sedge.-External links:*...
  
  Lam.
• Carex subnigricans
  Carex subnigricans
  Carex subnigricans is a species of sedge known by the common name nearlyblack sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the western United States from California to Wyoming, where it grows in moist and dry mountain habitat above in elevation in sub-alpine and alpine flora zones, such as in the...
  
  Stacey
• Carex tessellata
  Carex tessellata
  Carex tessellata is a species of plant in the Cyperaceae family. It is known from a single herbarium specimen collected by Richard Spruce from an uncertain location in Ecuador in the nineteenth century....
  
  Spruce ex C. B. Clarke
• Carex thouarsii
  Carex thouarsii
  Carex thouarsii is a species of sedge found in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. It lives chiefly in heaths dominated by Blechnum palmiforme, and Phylica arborea woodland. It is widespread and common on Tristan da Cunha and Inaccessible Island, but scarce on Nightingale Island, possibly due to a...
  
  Carmich.
• Carex tiogana
  Carex tiogana
  Carex tiogana is a rare species of sedge known by the common name Tioga sedge. It is endemic to California, where it is known only from the Sierra Nevada in Mono County. There are four small occurrences....
  
  D.W. Taylor & J.D. Mastrog.
• Carex toreadora
  Carex toreadora
  Carex toreadora is a little-known species of sedge from Ecuador. It was described in 1964 by the prolific plant collector Julian A. Steyermark, having been collected in 1943 at an altitude of in Azuay Province. There it grew in "moist mossy boggy places bordering [an] alpine lake"...
  
  Steyerm.
• Carex tumulicola
  Carex tumulicola
  Carex tumulicola, the splitawn sedge foothill sedge, or previously Berkeley sedge, is a Sedge member of the Cyperaceae family.-Description:...
  
  Mack.
• Carex umbrosa
  Carex umbrosa
  Carex umbrosa is a species of sedge native to Europe and Asia as far east as Japan....
  
  Host.
• Carex utriculata
  Carex utriculata
  Carex utriculata is a species of sedge known by the common name Northwest Territory sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the northern half of North America, including most all of Canada and the northern United States, and down to montane California. It is also found in parts of Eurasia...
  
  Boott
• Carex vallicola
  Carex vallicola
  Carex vallicola is a species of sedge known by the common name valley sedge. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to New Mexico, where it grows in many types of moist and dry habitat, including forest and grassland. This sedge produces clumps of stems up to about 60...
  
  Dewey
• Carex vernacula
  Carex vernacula
  Carex vernacula is a species of sedge known by the common name native sedge.-Distribution:This sedge is native to the western United States, where it grows in moist mountain habitat in alpine climates and higher subalpine elevations...
  
  L. H. Bailey
• Carex vesicaria
  Carex vesicaria
  Carex vesicaria is an essentially Holarctic species of sedge known by the common name Blister Sedge. The dried fibers, sometimes used as thermal insulation in polar regions, are known as sennegrass, saennegrass or similar, from the plant's Bokmål name Sennegras.-Distribution:This sedge is native to...
  
  L.
• Carex vulpinoidea
  Carex vulpinoidea
  Carex vulpinoidea is a species of sedge known by the common name fox sedge. It is native to North America, including most of Canada and the United States and part of Mexico, and it is known in Europe and New Zealand as an introduced species. The sedge lives in wet and seasonally wet habitat, and...
  
  Michx.
• Carex williamsii
  Carex williamsii
  Carex williamsii is a species of sedge found in Siberia and northern North America, from Alaska to Greenland.-External links:*, PLANTS Profile*, Flora of North America...
  
  Britton

External links

• Jones, T. M., et al. (2010) Interactive Visual Identification to Carices of North America @ LSU Herbarium
• Carex images on MorphBank, a biological image database
• El Nativo Growers: annotated carex-sedge catalogue: Native California Carex: i.d. & horticultural info.
• Native Sons: annotated grass-sedge-rush catalogue