Carex albursina

Carex albursina is a wide-ranging perennial graminoid in forests of eastern North America from Quebec and Ontario, Canada south to Georgia west to Oklahoma in the United States. There are over 1000 estimated occurrences, which face threats from development, rights-of-way maintenance, logging, recreational activities, invasive species, and deer herbivory. Little is known about trends, but with a large range extent and large number of occurrences, abundant habitat, broad habitat preferences, and no obvious intrinsic vulnerabilities, this species is considered secure.

Carex albursina occurs in eastern North America from Quebec and Ontario, Canada south to eastern Oklahoma, northern Arkansas, and northern Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia in the United States (FNA 2002, Weakley and the Southeastern Flora Team 2025). Range extent was estimated to be over 2 million square kilometers using herbarium specimens, photo-based observations, and NatureServe Network occurrence data documented between 1994 and 2025 (GBIF 2025, iNaturalist 2025, NatureServe 2025, RARECAT 2025, SEINet 2025).

By applying a 1 km separation distance to herbarium specimens, photo-based observations, and NatureServe Network occurrence data documented between 1994 and 2025, it is estimated that there are over 1000 occurrences rangewide (GBIF 2025, iNaturalist 2025, NatureServe 2025, RARECAT 2025, SEINet 2025).

Although threats are not widely documented, this species is threatened by development, rights-of-way maintenance, logging, trampling from recreational activities, invasive species, deer herbivory, and other threats in some places, though there is insufficient data, including anecdotal accounts, to understand scope and severity of threats for this species (NatureServe 2025). However, their overall impact is likely negligible given the species' broad range, large number of occurrences, tolerance of light disturbance, and affinity for typically abundant habitats, as well as no obvious intrinsic vulnerabilities.