General: Perennial, loosely tufted herb from rhizomes and elongated, light brown stolons; stems 15-60 cm tall, slender and arching, shorter than or about as long as the leaves.
Leaves: Sheaths tight; blades numerous, borne on the lower part of the stems, 0.7-1.2 mm wide, flat.
Flowers: Spikes 5 to 10 in a long inflorescence, separated, the uppermost closer together, egg-shaped, 1- to 6-flowered, about 5 mm long, ascending, with both female and male flowers, the female flowers towards the base, the male flowers inconspicuous; bracts reduced, only the lowermost bract often awnlike, about 0.5-2 cm long.
Fruits: Perigynia elliptical, 2.2-3 mm long, 0.8-1.5 mm wide, light green, minutely whitish-dotted, biconvex, smooth, 1- or 2-ribbed, beakless; female scales egg-shaped, covering 1/2 of the perigynia, pointed, green, with green midribs; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.5-1.7 mm long, filling the perigynia.
Bogs, fens, swamps, wet meadows and moist to wet forests in all but the alpine zone; common in BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, rare in coastal BC; circumpolar, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to NJ, PA, MN, SD, UT, AZ, NM and CA; Eurasia.
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)
