| General Information |
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| Distribution | The largest genus in the family with about 2,100 species, distributed worldwide, occurring in a diverse array of habitats.
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Habit
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Perennial, monoecious (except a few boreal species dioecious) herbs, often with ligneous rhizomes.
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Leaves
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Leaves 3-ranked, basal or also a few cauline; blade linear or rarely
lanceolate; sheath closed, sheath of basal leaves often brown, reddish brown, purplish brown, or dusky brown, often disintegrated into fibers and covering neck of rhizome.
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Flowers
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Inflorescences of 2 to numerous spikes, racemosely, spicately, fasciculately, or paniculately disposed, or sometimes of a single terminal spike, lateral spikes bracteate. Spikes perfect, or if unisexual, then the terminal one usually staminate and lateral ones pistillate; glumes spirally arranged, closely spaced spikelets reduced to a single flower; staminate spikelet consisting of 3 stamens borne in the axil of a scale; pistillate spikelet consisting of a single naked pistil contained within an urceolate perigynium, subtended by a scale;
perigynium falling with the mature achene, but not adherent to it, thus forming the outer portion of the dispersal unit, apex of perigynium with a small opening through which
the stigmas protrude at anthesis, stigmas 2‒3.
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Fruit
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Achenes lenticular or trigonous.
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Notes
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The name is the classical Latin name for a sedge, perhaps from carere, to be absent, as the distal spikes are staminate and do not produce seeds.
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Contributor
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Nancy Khan
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