Plants caespitose, or not caespitose. Scales present, or absent. Leaves mostly basal, or distributed along the stems. Flowering stems shorter than the leaves, or about as high as the leaves, or conspicuously taller than the leaves.
Pedicels smooth, or scabrous.
Staminate flowers inconspicuous, or conspicuous. The genus Carex includes the sedges that dominate wetlands, pasture, prairies, tundra and the herb layer of temperate forests. Worldwide, there may be as many as 2000 species. Carex is one of the largest genera in the Canadian flora with approximately 300 species and the largest genus in the Arctic Archipelago flora with 30 species. Primocarex to have evolved independently from multispicate species in the other subgenera.