General: Perennial, somewhat tufted herb from elongate fibrous roots; stems 25-60 cm tall, about as long as the leaves.
Leaves: Sheaths tight; blades numerous, borne on the lower part of the stem, 1.5-4 mm wide, flat.
Flowers: Spikes 5 to 15 in a 3- to 5-cm long, dense, cylindrical or narrowly egg-shaped head, occasionally with a few spikes separate below, many-flowered, 5-8 mm long, ascending, with both female and male flowers, the female flowers towards the tips, the male flowers inconspicuous; lowermost bract awnlike, about 0.5-2 cm long.
Fruits: Perigynia egg-shaped, 2.2-3.5 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, green, dark green or brownish, minutely whitish-dotted, plano-convex, smooth, obscurely ribbed, especially above, unstalked, the beaks about 1 mm long, minutely sharp-toothed, shallowly cleft; female scales egg-shaped, covering about 1/2 of the perigynia, pointed, nearly colourless to brownish, with green midribs; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.2-1.7 mm long.
Moist to wet meadows, fens, marshes, ditches and clearings in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common in S BC; N to AK, YT and NT, E to Labr. and NB, and S to MA, NY, MI, WI, MN, ID and CA.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
