Sedges in the genus Carex—with some 2000 species known worldwide—resemble grasses, but are classified in a separate family: the Cyperaceae. None of the 8 native Carex species found in Hawai‘i has a known Hawaiian name.

This Carex is an excellent landscape plant that is decorative and both shade and drought tolerant, but grows particularly rapidly in a sunny location. Easily grown from the yellow seeds, which should be collected soon after becoming mature. The plants begin to flower late in the wet season.