Carex jamesii

{{Short description|Species of grass-like plant}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Carex jamesii.jpg

| genus = Carex

| display_parents = 2

| parent = Carex sect. Phyllostachyae

| species = jamesii

| authority = Schwein.

}}

Carex jamesii, known as James's sedge or grass sedge, is a species of sedge native to North America from Minnesota east to New York and south to Oklahoma and South Carolina. It occurs in mesic hardwood forests and produces fruits from early May to mid July.{{eFloras|1|242357262|volume=23|Carex jamesii|accessdate=2018-09-27}} It has two to four perigynia that are subtended by leaf-like pistillate scales. Its seeds are dispersed by ants.{{cite journal |author=Andrew J. Beattie & David C. Culver |year=1981 |title=The guild of myrmecochores in the herbaceous flora of West Virginia forests |journal=Ecology |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=107–115 |jstor=1936674 |doi=10.2307/1936674}}

Within the genus Carex, Carex jamesii is in the section Phyllostachyae (sometimes Phyllostachys) and is most closely related to C. juniperorum.{{eFloras|1|302724|volume=23|Carex sect. Phyllostachyae|accessdate=2018-09-27}}{{cite journal |author=Julian R. Starr, Randall J. Bayer & Bruce A. Ford |year=1999 |title=The phylogenetic position of Carex section Phyllostachys and its implications for phylogeny and subgeneric circumscription in Carex (Cyperaceae) |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=86 |issue=4 |pages=563–577 |doi=10.2307/2656818 |pmid=10205077|jstor=2656818 }}

File:Carex jamesii Tennessee.jpg|Detail of fruiting spike