It has characteristic hairy leaves and inflorescences, and is the type species of the genus Carex.

[2] The stems are trigonous (roughly triangular in cross-section), but with convex, rounded faces.

[2] Carex hirta is native to Europe, and is found across the British Isles, albeit with records becoming very scarce in the far north.

[1] It was first recorded in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1877, and has since been found across much of the eastern United States and Canada.

It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 Species Plantarum, and the lectotype, from the herbarium of Adriaan van Royen, was designated by Ilkka Kukkonen in 1992.