This plant, is as its name suggests, is a very early flowering sedge and this means it can be identified without too much difficulty in the flowering rather than the fruiting stage. It grows in short limestone grassland and I have seen it on the Devils Dyke in Cambridgeshire as well as here in North Lancashire.

It is found in a few places in northern England and in east Anglia but not at all in Scotland, Wales or Ireland.

Wild Flower Society meeting, Arnside Knott, Lancashire 15th April 2006

Added on 18th April 2006, updated 11th March 2010, updated Se3 29th April 2010