The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus Carex with over 2,000 species.
Carex is a vast genus of more than 2,000 species of grass-like plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges. Other members of the family Cyperaceae 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.
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. It is frequent in a range of habitats, including grasslands, moorlands, exposed and disturbed soil, and the upper edges of salt marshes. It has naturalized in eastern North America.
Carex nigra (L.) Reichard is a perennial species of plants in the family Cyperaceae native to wetlands of Europe, western Asia, northwestern Africa, and eastern North America. Common names include common sedge, black sedge or smooth black sedge. The eastern limit of its range reaches central Siberia, Turkey and probably the Caucasus.
Carex pensylvanica is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family commonly called Pennsylvania sedge. Other common names include early sedge, common oak sedge, and yellow 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 abscondita, the thicket sedge, is a North American species of sedge first described by Kenneth Mackenzie in 1910. It grows along the central and eastern United States, from eastern Texas to southern Missouri, east to the Atlantic coast, and north to New Hampshire. It grows in moist areas of forests, shrublands, and swamps.
Carex davisii, known as Davis' sedge or awned graceful sedge, is a species of Carex native to North America. It is listed as an endangered, threatened, or species of concern across much of edge of its range. It was named in the 1820s by Lewis David de Schweinitz and John Torrey in honor of Emerson Davis (1798–1866), a Massachusetts educator and "enthusiastic student of the genus" Carex.
Carex albolutescens, known as greenish-white sedge or greenwhite sedge is a species of sedge native primarily to the lower Midwest and Eastern United States. C. albolutescens grows in wetlands, with an affinity toward acidic soils in swamps and woodlands.
Carex praecox, the spring sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to Europe, western Asia, and Mongolia. Its chromosome number is 2n=58, with some uncertainty.
Carex subspathacea, called Hoppner's sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to coastal salt marshes of the Arctic and northwest Pacific Oceans; Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, northern and far eastern Russia, Korea, and Japan. It is grazed by snow geese.
Carex rupestris, called the curly sedge and rock sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to temperate and subarctic North America, Greenland, Iceland, Europe, and Asia. It prefers to grow on rocky ledges.
Carex crinita, called fringed sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to central and eastern Canada and the central and eastern United States. It is the namesake of the Carex crinita species complex.
Carex stipata, variously called the prickly sedge, awl-fruited sedge, awlfruit sedge, owlfruit sedge, swamp sedge, sawbeak sedge, stalk-grain sedge and common fox sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to Canada, the United States, China, Korea, Japan, and Far Eastern Russia. It is a wetland obligate.
Carex pedunculata, the long-stalk sedge or longstalk sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to Canada and the central and eastern United States. Its seeds are dispersed by ants.
Carex pilosa, called hairy sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to central and eastern Europe as far as the Urals. It is typically found in temperate forests, where it may be the dominant species on the forest floor.
Carex atrata, called black Alpine sedge, is a widespread species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to Greenland, Iceland, and most of Europe, plus scattered locations across temperate Asia, including Anatolia, Siberia and the Himalaya, as far as Taiwan and Japan. Its chromosome number is 2n=52, with some variants reported.
Carex sempervirens, called the evergreen sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to the mountains of Europe. It is common plant in nutrient-limited grasslands above and below the treeline.
Carex microglochin, called the fewseeded bog sedge and bristle sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to temperate and subarctic North America, South America, Europe and Asia. It is uncertain which hemisphere it originated on before dispersing to the other.
