Carex aquatilis Wahlenb.

Vigorously and densely rhizomatous, commonly forming large clumps or a turf, the flowering stems 3–10(–15) dm, surrounded by the dried-up lf-bases of the previous year; lower sheaths red-tinged, lvs mostly 2–7 mm wide; spikes mostly 3–7, cylindric, approximate to ± remote, mostly (1–)1.5–5 cm, the terminal one staminate (sometimes with a few basal perigynia), sometimes with a smaller staminate spike at its base, the others pistillate or (especially the upper) sometimes androgynous, erect, all sessile or nearly so, or the lower ones often evidently pedunculate; bracts sheathless or nearly so, the lowest one 7–25 cm and mostly surpassing the infl; pistillate scales reddish-brown or tawny to often purplish-black, usually with a paler midrib, generally narrower and often shorter than the perigynia; perigynia spotted or suffused with reddish-brown or purple, elliptic to obovate, ± strongly flattened, 2–3.3 mm including the 0.1–0.3 mm entire beak, 2-ribbed, otherwise nerveless; achene lenticular, distinctly shorter and often narrower than the perigynial cavity; 2n=74–84. In shallow water or wet soil, sometimes in salt-marshes; circumboreal, s. to N.J., Ind., Io., and N.M. Our plants have been called var. substricta Kük. (C. substricta)

A common and often dominant plant in wet meadows, along the margins of lakes, ponds and streams, marshes and in shallow water, growing at low elevations in the Arctic but at higher elevation, up to 3,350 metres further south.

The 9-10 cm at the base of the stems is eaten raw. It is sweet.

Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings.