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 leaves. The leaves have basal sheaths with conspicuous red coloration, often spotting. The inflorescence is a dense to open cluster of many spikelets occurring both at the ends of stems and at nodes. Each cluster is up to 15 centimeters long and 1 to 2 wide. The plant is sometimes dioecious, with an individual sedge bearing either male or female flowers. The female, pistillate flowers have white or white-edged bracts. The male, staminate flowers have visible anthers 2 millimeters long or longer. The fruit is coated in a sac called a perigynium which is gold to dark brown in color and has a characteristic bit of spongy tissue at the base.
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.
Carex barbarae is a species of sedge known as Santa Barbara sedge.
Carex comosa is a species of sedge known as longhair sedge and bristly 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 than most common species and is good for retention basins. This sedge produces clumps of triangular stems up to 100 or 120 centimeters tall from short rhizomes. The inflorescence is up to 35 centimeters long and has a long bract which is longer than the spikes. It is a cluster of several cylindrical spikes. The scales over the fruits taper into long, thin awns.
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 clumps of stems up to about 35 centimeters in maximum height from long rhizomes. The leaves are thick but narrow, sickle-shaped, and pale green in color. Inflorescences occur at the stem tips, and some pistillate inflorescences grow from nodes along the stem. The spikelets have purplish bracts. The pistillate flowers have four stigmas on each pistil, an identifying characteristic. The fruit is coated in a sac called a perigynium, which is white to light brown in color, purple-tipped, and covered in hairs.
Carex diandra is a species of sedge known by the common names lesser tussock-sedge and lesser panicled sedge.
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.
Carex lenticularis is a species of sedge known by the common names lakeshore sedge and goosegrass 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 habitats.
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 and 120 centimeters. The leaves are small; those toward the bases of the stems are reduced to sheaths only. The inflorescence is a densely packed, bullet shaped cluster of overlapping flowers, mainly hanging on long peduncles. Each inflorescence is generally 2 to 4 centimeters long. Each of the flowers has a dark-colored bract.
Carex nigricans is a species of sedge known by the common name black alpine sedge.
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 height, growing in beds or colonies from rhizome networks. The inflorescence is a cluster of flower spikes accompanied by a long leaflike bract. The pistillate spikes and sometimes the staminate spikes dangle on peduncles. The fruit is coated by a hard, tough, shiny perigynium which is generally dark in color.
Carex leporina is a species of sedge known in the British Isles as oval sedge and in North America as eggbract sedge. It is native to Eurasia and eastern and western North America, where it grows in seasonally wet habitat, such as meadows and fields. This sedge produces many thin stems and narrow leaves. The inflorescence is an open cluster of several flower spikes. The pistillate flower has a reddish or brownish bract with a gold center and white tip.
Carex utriculata is a species of sedge known as Northwest Territory sedge and common yellow lake sedge.
Carex disticha is a Eurasian species of sedge known as the brown sedge or, in North America, tworank sedge.
Carex bigelowii is a species of sedge known by the common names Bigelow's sedge, Gwanmo sedge, and stiff sedge. It has an Arctic–alpine distribution in Eurasia and North America, and grows up to 50 centimetres (20 in) tall in a variety of habitats.
Carex vaginata is a species of sedge known by the common name sheathed sedge.
Carex simpliciuscula is a species of sedge known by the common names false sedge, simple bog sedge and simple kobresia. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the northern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.
Carex distans, commonly known as distant sedge, is a plant species in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. It is native to Europe and North Africa. It is part of a complex of similar species that occur across Eurasia. Its relatives include Carex diluta of central Asia, which has also been introduced to North America in Montana. Carex distans has been introduced to US states including Maryland and Pennsylvania. More recently, it was found in Oregon. There is a report from Victoria, Australia as well.
Carex eburnea, known as ivory sedge, ebony sedge, and bristleleaf or bristle-leaved sedge, is a small and slender sedge native to North America, from Alaska and Newfoundland south to central Mexico.
Carex rariflora, the looseflower alpine sedge, is a species of plant in the sedge family. It is found in the United States in Alaska and Maine, and in Canada in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In these regions, it is ranked as an obligate hydrophyte in establishing wetland areas. It prefers wet environments such as open bogs, meadows, seepage slopes, and low-elevation heath tundra. This perennial grass, which can be up to 3 feet tall, has fibrous roots, and holds all perennial organs underground. The leaves are alternate, long, narrow, and simple, with parallel veins. They grow in dense clusters, and the dead leaves are found at the base of the plant. The plant blooms and fruits in the summer. All flowers are monoecious and unisexual, producing a spike inflorescence. All inflorescences are subtended by shorter, proximal bracts.
