Pennsylvania Sedge
Carex pensylvanica
A fine-textured native sedge that forms a soft, low, lawn-like carpet in dry shade, and it's lovely tucked under taller perennials. It spreads slowly by runners and is hard to start from seed, so plant divisions or plugs close together for a solid stand.
- Mature size
- 8 in × 1 ft
- 0.2 × 0.3 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to full shade
- Water
- Dry to medium
Pennsylvania Sedge at its mature size
A mature Pennsylvania Sedge grows 1 to 8 inches tall and 1 to 12 inches wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, prairiemoon.com, minnesotawildflowers.info.
Through the year
What Pennsylvania Sedge looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Winter · Nov–Mar
Semi-evergreen: leaves faded to tan-bronze with some green at the base.
In leaf · Apr–Oct
Low soft tuft of fine bright green arching leaves.
Photos
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Growing Pennsylvania Sedge
- Grows well in
- The Northeast and the Midwest.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Groundcover, shade garden, drought tolerant, and deer resistant
- Leaves
- Dies back in winter
- Native to
- Eastern and Central North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Pennsylvania Sedge, that’s about 1 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Pennsylvania Sedge in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other sedges
Pennsylvania Sedge
Everillo SedgeAll drawn to the same scale.