General: Perennial, loosely tufted herb from slender, scaly rhizomes; stems 15-35 cm tall, from shorter than to longer than the leaves.
Leaves: Sheaths reddish-tinged, the lower ones bladeless and thread-like; blades 6 to 10 per stem, flat or somewhat channeled, gradually tapering to the tips, 2-5 mm wide.
Flowers: Spikes 2 or 3, the terminal one linear, 8-22 mm long, with male flowers, the lower 1 or 2 spikes linear to cylindrical, 5-10 mm long, unstalked or short-stalked, with female flowers, erect; bracts subtending the female spikes reduced to awn-tipped sheaths.
Fruits: Perigynia broadly egg-shaped, 2.5-3 mm long, 1.2-1.5 mm wide, light green, 3-angled, densely hairy, obscurely several-nerved, crowded, erect, short-stalked, the beaks bidentate, about 0.5 mm long or less; female scales narrowly egg-shaped, brown, with wide translucent margins, slightly longer to slightly shorter than the perigynia; stigmas 4, rarely 3; achenes 3-angled, 2-5 mm long.
Moist to dry forests, rocky slopes and clearings in the lowland and montane zones; common in SC and SE BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, less frequent northward to 56degreeN, rare on the coast; E to SW AB and S to MT, ID and N 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)
