Dewey Sedge - Carex deweyana

Carex deweyana, Dewey or Dewey's Sedge, is a perennial sedge native to Michigan but more common in the Upper Peninsula than downstate. It is a forest dweller, but is comfortable in a variety of settings from dappled to dense shade and wet to dry, including shaded shorelines. It forms clumps of graceful vegetation, but the seed stalks (culms) lean out from the center in order to spread the colony outward. 
 
Michigan Flora quotes its namesake, Chester Dewey (1863), when he found this sedge growing in New York "...in one dense matted oval turf of three feet in length and two in breadth, with the host of culms (hundreds at least) lying prostrate in all directions, light green; a plat of vegetable life more beautiful had never occurred to me.”
 
Use as a groundcover in shaded areas or as a matrix layer or living mulch adding habitat near the ground for shade gardens. It varies in height depending on conditions from 6 to 36 inches and tends to be shorter in dryer habitats. This sedge is used by a variety of sparrows and juncos. Sedges are host plants for some skipper and saytr butterflies and numerous moths.