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

General:
Perennial, tufted herb from short, fibrous roots; stems 10-40 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight; blades flat, 2-3.5 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem, lowermost stem leaves reduced to scales.

Flowers:
Spikes 3 to 6 aggregated into a dense, 1- to 2-cm long, triangular to egg-shaped head, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips; bracts subtending the spikes sheathless, reduced, inconspicuous.

Fruits:
Perigynia egg-shaped, 4.5-6 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, brownish to dark brown, more or less flattened, the margins winged nearly to the bases and the upper 1/2 fringed with teeth, lightly several-nerved on the back, with faint nerves or nerveless below, the beak obscurely bidentate, about 1.5 mm long, narrowly margined and toothed below; female scales elliptical, dark brown, somewhat shorter and narrower than the perigynia; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.4-1.8 mm long.