E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 5-20 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight, brownish to straw-coloured; blades flat, 1-3 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem.

Flowers:
Spikes 2 to 5, the terminal one long-stalked, 4-10 mm long, with male flowers, the lower 2 to 4 spikes with female flowers, long-stalked, spreading or nodding; bracts subtending the female spikes tubular-sheathed, leaflike, the lower bracts longer than the spikes and their stalks, the upper one reduced.

Fruits:
Perigynia lanceolate to egg-shaped, 2-3.3 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, green to greenish-brown, convex, smooth or fringed above with teeth, 2-nerved, short-stalked, the beaks bidentate, 0.3-0.6 mm long; female scales egg-shaped, rounded to pointed, brownish, with green centres and translucent margins, shorter but often wider than the perigynia; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 1.2-1.5 mm long.