No doubt about it, people love lawns. They love the neat look of turfgrass, the seas of green. However, lawns are a problem. A big problem. Lawns fragment valuable habitat, displace wildlife and pollinators, encourage the overuse of herbicides and pesticides and need emissions-heavy machinery for their upkeep, even in the most awkward of medians, strips and slopes. In the face of a changing world, the lawn, and the idea of what a lawn is, must change too. Luckily there is a humble, Clark Kent-ish genus of plants poised to help: Carex.
comprises affable, unassuming species that spend
