Carex borealipolaris, the Siberian bog sedge, is a species of plant known from arctic and alpine tundra habitats in Russia (Siberia, the Russian Far East), Canada (Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, British Columbia), and the United States (Alaska, Colorado (several counties in the Rockies), Utah (Duchesne County), Montana (Carbon County), and Wyoming (Park County)). Some authorities have considered the North American collections as distinct species (C. macrocarpa, described from Colorado,Clokey, Ira Waddell, ex Mackenzie, Kenneth Kent. 1931. North American Flora 18(1): 5. and K. hyperborea from the Canadian Arctic),Porsild, Alf Erling. 1951. Bulletin of the National Museum of Canada 121: 103. but they are more often tentatively regarded as conspecific with C. borealipolaris, but this is pending further investigation.Flora of North America v 23 p 253. Kobresia sibiricaBONAP (Biota of North America Program) floristic synthesis, Kobresia sibiricaTolmatchev, A. I. 1966. Cyperaceae. Arkticheskaia Flora SSSR 3: 1–176.Czerepanov, S. K. 1981. Sosudistye Rasteniia SSSR 509 pages. Nauka, Leningradskoe Otd-nie, Leningrad.
Carex borealipolaris is a perennial herb spreading by means of underground rhizomes. Culms are up to 40 cm tall. Leaves are narrow and thread-like, up to 15 cm long. Lower spikelets generally have both pistillate and staminate flowers, while uppermost spikelets are staminate only.photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, isotype of Kobresia macrocarpa (synonym of Kobresia sibirica) collected in ColoradoTurczaninow, Nicolai Stepanowitsch, in Ledebour, Carl (Karl) Friedrich von. 1852. Flora Rossica 4(13): 262.Boeckeler, Johann Otto. 1875. Linnaea 39: 7.Cody, W. J. 1996. Flora of the Yukon Territory i–xvii, 1–669. NRC Research Press, Ottawa.Welsh, S. L. 1974. Anderson's Flora of Alaska and Adjacent Parts of Canada i–xvi, 1–724. Brigham Young University Press, Provo.
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