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General:
Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 30-100 cm tall, smooth, exceeding the leaves.
Leaves:
Sheaths tight; blades flat, 2-5 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/2 of the stem but not crowded at the bases.
Flowers:
Spikes 4 to 8; forming ellipsoid heads 1-4 cm long with lower spikes slightly remote, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips, the male parts often elongated; bracts of lowest spikes often leaflike, longer than the inflorescence, expanded at the bases, with the green midribs flanked by translucent coppery margins.
Fruits:
Perigynia egg-shaped, 4-5 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, light green to straw-coloured or brownish, more or less flattened, the margins winged nearly to the bases and the upper 1/2 fringed with teeth, lightly several-nerved on both sides or with fainter nerves on the lower side, the beaks bidentate, less than 1 mm long, wing-margined and toothed below; female scales egg-shaped, brownish, with green centres, with broad translucent margins, somewhat shorter and narrower than the perigynia, short-awned; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.8-2.1 mm long.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
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