Carex

Carex is a genus of plants belonging to the Cyperaceae family established by Carlos Linnaeus in 1753 and made up of about 1100 species distributed throughout the world but with predominance of cold and temperate regions. It is the genus of plants with amphimictic reproduction (that is, with sexual intervention) more extensive among the angiosperms (plants with flowers and fruits). The singular is castilianized as cárex (feminine) and the plural as cárices.

Description

They are perennial turf or rhizomatous plants; with mostly angulated culms; monoecious or rarely dioecious plants. Leaves mostly linear, flat, folded, or ribbed; sheath closed, variably ligulate. Staminate and pistillate flowers on the same or different spikes on the same plant; spikes frequently embraced by a foliose bract, sessile or variously stalked, individual florets embraced by a single paleaceous scale; perianth absent; stamens 3; ovary, except for the apex of the style and the fruit, surrounded loosely or closely by a modified sac-shaped bract, which is the perigonium, this one with or without a rostrum.

Taxonomy

The genus was named by Charles Linnaeus and published in Species Plantarum 2: 972–979. 1753.

Etymology

Carex: generic name that could derive from the Greek kairo, which means "to hurt", related to the sharp leaves that these plants have. Already used by Virgil (3, 231).