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

General:
Perennial, densely tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 10-80 cm tall, longer than the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths straw-coloured to greenish; blades 4 to 8 per stem, flat or channelled below, borne on the lower 1/2 of the stem, 2-5 mm wide, the lower ones reduced or lacking.

Flowers:
Spikes 3 to 7, the terminal one unstalked or short-stalked, linear, 5-20 mm long, with male flowers (rarely some female flowers), the lower spikes 2 to 5, erect, cylindrical, 5-19 mm long, many-flowered, with female flowers (sometimes with male flowers at the tips), long-stalked, the stalks 5-20 mm long; bracts subtending the female spikes conspicuous, leaflike, 3-8 cm long, much exceeding the inflorescence, the sheaths 2-20 mm long, the upper bracts shorter.

Fruits:
Perigynia spreading to reflexed, egg-shaped, 4.2-6.5 mm long, 1.2-2 mm wide, yellowish-green to green, smooth, prominently nerved, 2-ribbed, the beaks about as long as the bodies of the perigynia, bidentate, finely toothed on the margins, reddish-tinged at the tips; female scales egg-shaped, pointed, shortly awned at the tips, narrower and much shorter than the perigynia, reddish to brownish, with greenish midribs and translucent margins; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, smooth, 1.2-1.5 mm long.