DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Carex vaginata | Sheathed Sedge 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
The distribution of sheathed sedge is circumboreal [1,12].  It extends
south in the United States to Maine and west to northern Minnesota.  It
extends across Canada, but has not been reported from Manitoba [7,9,11].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir


STATES : 
     AK  ME  MI  MN  NY  VT  WI  AB  BC  NB
     NF  NT  ON  PQ  SK  YT


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     DENA  ISRO  LACL  PIRO  YUCH


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
NO-ENTRY


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K094  Conifer bog
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
     1  Jack pine
     5  Balsam fir
    12  Black spruce
    13  Black spruce - tamarack
    37  Northern white-cedar
   107  White spruce


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
In the western area of the Northwest Territories, (south of the arctic
circle and to the west of Great Bear Lake) in a subarctic black spruce
(Picea mariana) ecosystem, sheathed sedge is one of nine species that
form the dominant understory cover and biomass of the vascular plants.
The other associated species are bog Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum),
crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), blueberry willow (Salix myrtillifolia),
littletree willow (Salix arbusculoides), red fruit bearberry
(Arctostaphylos rubra), bog blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), sedge
(Carex membranacea), and polargrass (Arctagrostis latifolia) [13].

Sheathed sedge is associated with a wide variety of species.  Associated
species are listed for white spruce (Picea glauca)-green alder (Alnus
crispa)-willow (Salix spp.) communities in northwestern Northwest
Territories [10].  Associates are listed for low shrub birch (Betula
glandulosa)-willow-green alder communities and for white spruce (Picea
glauca)-balsam poplar (Populus balsamifer) communities in south-central
Alaska [20].  Associates are also listed for the boreal forest of
eastern Ontario and western Quebec [3], northern Ontario [17], and
central Saskatchewan, Canada [5].

Sheathed sedge grows in tundra communities as well as in the boreal
forest [23].

Related categories for Species: Carex vaginata | Sheathed Sedge