Just moved to our new house and found these growing outback (VERY wet, some standing water, and 2 miles from the coast). There are probably 3 different types of foliage among these plants, and some look like lilies to me. They are growing in our backyard, among moss. Anyone have any ideas?? I dug them up so they wouldn't get mowed over, but not sure what to expect?

Two plants I can be sure of:
1)Dave's beloved Taraxacum
2)Carex species. Most love wet environments. If you find a wild plant book specific to your locale, you may be able to identify it, but please don't try from the web. They are notoriously difficult to distinguish, even for botanists, and there are 636 species in North America alone.

Hi Kuklachica....here is a link that lists Navtive coastal Maine plants. It is from the Coastal Maine Native Botanical garden...it lists at least 8 different Carex species.
http://www.mainegardens.org/wp...

Thanks..I live about 15 miles from there. Are you saying that the prominent plants there are carex? Because they look like stella de oro foliage, not grass.

No, I thought they looked kinda like daylilies also, but I have been fooled by pictures before. I sent the link so you could compare what you have to the species of Carex that is native to your area and agree or rule it out. I figured if it was Carex, then that site would be a reliable ID source.

You mentioned you dug them up....did you look at the roots? Daylilies have tuberous roots as pictured in this link

http://www.self-reliance-works...

I assumed they were wild plants. Still lean toward Carex, though.

You can easily tell by the roots, or the foliage which from your pics don't look like daylily, but I can't be positive, then. But you could...
Daylilies always have what looks like opposite leaf arrangement on the individual stems. These are all pics of different daylilies showing this:



Carex does not do this, and often you can detect leaves growing in 3 ranks instead of 2. Sometimes you can role the stems between your fingers and feel a triangular (instead of round) stem, also.

It's certainly in the sedge family, could be a species of Carex, or Bolboschoenus, or any of a dozen other genera in the family. It's impossible to know which until it flowers.