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First Impression: Carex meadii is a slender blue-green sedge known for its ability to adapt to its surroundings making it a wonderful addition to part shade gardens and prairies alike.  It spreads via long rhizomes to form loose colonies and plays well with taller later to emerge vegetation.  It creates a weed barrier of green mulch as it weaves its way around other vigorous perennials and grasses.

Habitat & Hardiness: Occurring all through the central and eastern United States and into central Canada, Carex meadii is present in many different ecosystems. These range from the prairies of the Midwest, through the Appalachia’s and into the eastern U.S. as far north as New York and further south to Georgia. Carex meadii is considered an indicator of a high-quality prairie in the Eastern Great Plains and Midwest.  This species of Carex is hardy in USDA zones 3-8.

Plant Description: Carex meadii is unusual in forming loose colonies of plants from long rhizomes, rather than tight tufts of leaves from short rhizomes.  Additionally, this sedge will spread by seed when in the right conditions. C. meadii starts strong in the cooler weather providing some much needed color to the ground after winter with its easily distinguished blueish colored foliage that is most prominent in the spring and fall.  With its vigorous root system it is well suited to helping stabilize soil and support its ever growing mound of long, slender foliage and beautiful seed stalks. This is important as meadii can grow up to 2′ tall and wide in some habitats.

This early blooming sedge produces fertile flowering stalks with 1-3 unisexual individual spikes. The terminal male flower cluster is very noticeable when golden yellow pollen is produced.   Seed heads will appear in April starting out as light green, turning darker as they mature and then finally to a tan when ripened. The seeds will often be food for birds such as Mourning Dove, Ring-necked Pheasant and wild Turkey among others. Carex meadii also supports Skipper caterpillars and grasshoppers providing a good foundation for a meadow, woodland edge or even moderately wooded ecosystems to support native wildlife.

Cultural & Maintenance Needs: Able to survive in most areas that it’ll find itself, Carex meadii will take moist to dry soil along prairies, savannas, meadows, limestone glades and along railroads. It is an undergrowth sedge of prairies and other open areas where it adapts to the shade of taller vegetation; so works well in full sun to part shade.

Not needing much in the way of maintenance to live, if being used in a garden or landscape brown or dead foliage can be trimmed back in the late winter to early spring for a cleaned up appearance.

Landscape Uses: Carex meadii is a valuable groundcover for a shady garden and sunny garden alike. Plants provide erosion control and winter interest and are appropriate for deer resistant plantings, low maintenance plantings, water-wise landscapes, rain gardens and wildlife gardens.

COMPANION & UNDERSTUDY PLANTS:  Try pairing Carex meadii with Fragaria virginiana, Pycnanthemum muticum, Solidago graminifolia , Chasmanthium latifolium, Heuchera villosa ‘Autumn Bride‘ or Polystichum acrostichoides.

Carex woodii is similar in appearance, rhizomatous habit and cultural needs and would be a worthy substitute.

Trivia: Carex meadii is named for its discoverer Samuel Barnum Mead who lived from 1799-1880.  He was an Illinois physician and botanist, who also discovered Asclepius meadii.  Mead’s herbarium of over 12,000 species is housed in the herbarium of Knox College in Illinois.