Carex is a vast genus of over 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 lasiocarpa is a broadly distributed species of wetland sedge sometimes known as woollyfruit sedge or slender sedge. It is considered a species of Least Concern by the IUCN Red List due to its extensive range with many stable populations.
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 marshes and moist prairie land, and it may grow in shallow water. This sedge produces triangular, hollow stems 30 to 120 centimeters tall. The leaves are hairy, especially on the lower parts, and the leaf sheath is tinted with reddish purple. The inflorescence is up to 60 centimeters long and made up of several spikes; those spikes near the tip are usually staminate, and those lower in the inflorescence are usually pistillate. The tip of each fruit has two or more long, thin teeth.
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 species and often a weed in California.
Carex nebrascensis is a species of sedge commonly known as Nebraska sedge.
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 rossii, commonly known as Ross's sedge, is a hardy species of sedge that is often a pioneer species in areas with little or no established vegetation, or in places where disturbance has occurred. Ross's sedge grows in a variety of habitats throughout much of western North America, from Alaska to Ontario, south to New Mexico and California. It flowers in May and June.
Carex simulata is a species of sedge known by the common name analogue sedge.
Carex klamathensis is a rare species of sedge known by the common name Klamath sedge. It is known from 15 or fewer populations in southern Oregon and three populations in the Klamath Region of northern California. It was described to science only in 2007. Its habitat includes fens and other wet habitat, on serpentine soils. It was discovered independently by botanists Peter Zika and Lawrence Janeway.
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 but they are limited to a specific type of habitat. The plants grow from the sides of steep, often vertical cliffs of red Navajo Sandstone, in areas where water trickles from the rock. It occurs at elevations between 5,700 and 6,000 feet, usually in shady spots. Though it is not a grass, the sedge grows in inconspicuous clumps resembling tufts of grass sticking out of the rock face. When the sedge was federally listed as a threatened species in 1985, it was known from only three populations in Coconino County, Arizona, with no more than 700 plants existing. The species has since been observed in northeastern Arizona and San Juan County, Utah.
Carex pilulifera, the pill sedge, is a European species of sedge found in acid heaths, woods and grassland from Macaronesia to Scandinavia. It grows up to 30 cm (12 in) tall, with 2–4 female spikes and 1 male spike in an inflorescence. These stalks bend as the seeds ripen, and the seeds are collected and dispersed by ants of the species Myrmica ruginodis.
Carex inops is a species of sedge known as long-stolon sedge and western oak sedge. It is native to northern North America, where it occurs throughout the southern half of Canada and the western and central United States.
Carex saxatilis is a species of sedge known by the common names rock sedge and russet sedge.
Carex vaginata is a species of sedge known by the common name sheathed sedge.
Carex lacustris, known as lake sedge, is a tufted grass-like perennial of the sedge family (Cyperaceae), native to southern Canada and the northern United States. C. lacustris us an herbaceous surface-piercing plant that grows in water up to 50 cm (1.6 ft) deep, and grows 50–150 cm (1.6–4.9 ft) tall. It grows well in marshes and swampy woods of the boreal forest, along river and lake shores, in ditches, marshes, swamps, and other wetland habitat. It grows on muck, sedge peat, wet sand or silt, in filtered or full sunlight.
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 blanda, the common woodland sedge or eastern woodland sedge, is a species of sedge native to a wide variety of habitats in the eastern and central United States and Canada.
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 bicolor, the bicoloured sedge, is a species of sedge native to North America, Northern Europe and Northern Asia. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the plant's conservation status as being of least concern because it has a widespread distribution and faces no particular threats.
Carex tenuiflora, the sparse-flowered sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cyperaceae.
