The section Stellulatae of the genus Carex includes several taxa that have created persistent challenges for floristic treatments and conservation efforts in the eastern United States. The cryptic aspects of their morphologies and confusing historical circumscriptions have obscured the identities of these taxa resulting in erroneous assessments of ecology, distribution, and conservation status. Utilizing previous treatments, analysis of herbarium specimens, and de novo fieldwork, we treat the Stellulatae as a reduction from ten species listed by authors of various floras for Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia to seven taxa comprising six species: Carex atlantica ssp. atlantica, C. atlantica ssp. capillacea, C. echinata ssp. echinata, C. interior, C. exilis, C. sterilis, and C. seorsa.

We examine the morphological characters used to identify taxa and outline the problems with earlier circumscriptions. We determined statistical significance of the means of four character states (infructescence length, length of lowest perigynium, maximum leaf width, and minimum leaf width) to identify infraspecific taxa within Carex atlantica Bailey. Finally, we report new records of taxa, update distributions in a county-based atlas for the region, and present a dichotomous key for the section.